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Checklist for a "Great book" for a civilization.

Examples:

• Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the Greeks
• the Torah for the Jews
• the Quran for Arabs and Muslims
• Dante's Divine Comedy for Italians
• Cervantes's Don Quixote for Spaniards
• Goethe's Faust for Germans
• Tolstoy's War and Peace for Russians
• Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber for the Chinese
• Murasaki Shikibu's Genji Monogatari for the Japanese
• Shakespeare's Hamlet for the English
• Huckleberry Finn for Americans
• Plato's Republic for ancient philosophers
• Kant's Critique of Pure Reason for modern philosophers

A Great Book should include...

A great theme

which, in general, seems to be how a representative human stands up to the-powers-that-be.

A memorable character

Odysseus, Don Quixote, Jesus, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn - a personality distinct from other people

An aphorism, a phrase that sums it all up

Love your enemy, fighting windmills, stream of consciousness

A range of small and large pieces

The Ten Commandments, The Sermon on the Mount, Kant's Prolegomenon, the "highlights", the "best parts"

An ever growing interpretation, performance and commentary

A mish mash of genres

An overall structure

A value system with related conflicts and resolutions

Multiple vantage points, but especially, "stepped in" and "stepped out".

A place, a time, a world of its own

Dublin, Ireland

A language that can be dead or alive, simple or obscure, created and creating

An embrace of earlier layers of culture

Incorporation into rituals