All of these writers are correctly matched with their most famous piece of literature except for Thomas More, who is famous for writing Utopia. Lives of Illustrious Men was written by Petrarch, sometimes referred to as “the Father of Humanism.”

Raphael’s The School of Athens is one of the most famous and influential artistic works of the Renaissance period. It depicts the classical Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato holding court at the school of Athens and is widely understood to be a celebration and exaltation of the values and accomplishments of the classical period, particularly ancient and classical Greece.

The Baroque movement emerged in popularity in the seventeenth century and was supported by both the Papacy and the European aristocracy. It employs exaggerated motion and dramatic detail to create a style of art meant to seem both impressive and imposing. It was widely employed by the aristocracy to create artistic and architectural works that were meant to express power and control. The Palace of Versailles is one such example.

In Praise of Folly was published the first decade of the sixteenth century by the Dutch humanist Erasmus. Although Erasmus remained an ardent Catholic his whole life and never fully embraced the Protestant Reformation, he was nonetheless dissatisfied with the corruption and abuses that he saw within the church. In Praise of Folly is a scathing attack on these corruptions. It is sometimes credited with helping to lay the foundations for the Protestant Reformation.

The Odyssey and The Iliad are two famous epics written down from the oral tradition of Homer. The epic poems tell the tale of the Trojan War and the return home of Odysseus from this war. The were among the foundations of both archaic and classical panhellenism ("all Greece"). The peninsula of Greece was, at this time, not a nation-state (nation-states did not, strictly speaking, exist at this time in history), but a collection of city-states, united by a common language and by large-scale common cultural practices (The Olympic Games, Homer, the ritual recognition of the gods of Olympus). Greek city-states were yet still quite distinct culturally, socially, and politically when seen up-close.

Montesquieu is usually remembered for writing The Spirit of Laws, which influenced the formation of the United States’ government with its advocation for separation of powers and its emphasis on the necessity of checks and balances in any legislative system. Montesquieu also wrote Persian Letters, a text of possibly equal importance, which marked the first time Europeans were given a substantive view of their society from the perspective of a foreigner (or, more accurately, the first time such a perspective was paid substantial attention). It introduced many Europeans to the notion that their perspective might be limited, that they had what is now called a Eurocentric view on the world.

Don Quixote is the most famous work in the history of Spanish literature. It was written by Cervantes in the sixteenth century and is primarily a mockery of the culture that existed in Spain in Cervantes’ time period. Cervantes wanted to shine a light on the absurd glorification of chivalry and anachronistic reverence for medieval values. Cervantes' disdain, and muted, vexed respect for, chivalric cultural values can be found in the most lasting image of the work, and one of the most lasting images in all of literature, that of Don Quixote riding valiantly into battle against a windmill.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was published in 1899 and is one of the most influential works in the English language. The book deals with European ideals of what constitutes barbarism and the right to call oneself “civilized” by exploring the harsh reality of European imperialism on the African continent. Conrad is sharply critical of the racial motivations behind European imperialism.

The majority of the Renaissance took place in Italy, as intellectuals from all over Europe flocked to booming cultural centers receiving vast amounts of wealth and support from patrons of the arts and sciences. Florence in particular had undergone a public revitalization of classical Greek studies that focused on poetry, mathematics, science, and art during the rule of the prominent and scholarly Medici family. 

Wilfred Owen's poetry, including his celebrated Dulce et Decorum Est, railed against the horrors of the First World War and helped give a voice to a generation destroyed by violence. John Keats was a 19th century Romantic poet. Jack Kerouac was a mid-century poet and novelist, and a prominent member of the Beat movement. Michel de Montaigne was 16th century French writer widely credited with inventing the modern form of the essay. Philip Larkin is a poet of the mid-20th century.