I think it may depend on what you consider 'quality' and the purposes of the course. Is the typical 'literary canon' type of books 'the best' reading from 1600?

I think it may depend on what you consider 'quality' and the purposes of the course. Is the typical 'literary canon' type of books 'the best' reading from 1600? Is the best reading list for a historical reading course all about reading similar stories from similar perspectives because they sold the most or have been popular with academics for the last couple hundred years? Or would you possibly get more value out of reading perspectives from lesser known authors who aren't white or whatever and thus were never as popular. I know, in a lot of cases, I'd be more interested to read some niche tail written in the 1870s by a relatively unknown black or woman author than another version of huckleberry finn. Especially at a college level, you want to learn new and varied things you haven't been exposed to before, and more books by Charles Dickens aren't going to open a lot of new ideas and perspectives. Sorry for my early morning rambles.