The Greatest Books of All Time on Character

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
402 The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle -334 Greek Ancient greek
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1297 Poetics Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
2226 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2611 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
4115 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
5017 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
6000 After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre 1981 British English
6425 The Lonely Crowd David Riesman 1950 American English
6767 Mc Guffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836 American English
7216 Representative Men Ralph Waldo Emerson 1850 American English
10308 Character Analysis Wilhelm Reich 1945 German German
10308 An Actor Prepares Konstantin Stanislavski 1936 Russian Russian
11940 Theodore Roosevelt Henry F. Pringle 1931 American English
13362 The Great Tradition F. R. Leavis 1948 British English
13362 Household Education Harriet Martineau 1848 British English
13879 Self Help Samuel Smiles 1859 British English
14068 The Road To Character David Brooks 2015 American English
14756 Letters To His Children Theodore Roosevelt 1919 American English
14832 Leadership Doris Kearns Goodwin 2018 American English
16508 Table Talk William Hazlitt 1822 English English
17159 Theophrastus William Wall Fortenbaugh, Dimitri Gutas 1992 Greek English
17159 The Gentleman In Trollope Shirley Robin Letwin 1982 British English
17159 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey 1989 American English
17159 They Call Me Coach John Wooden, Jack Tobin 1972 American English
17159 The Book Of Virtues William Bennett 1993 American English
17159 An Ordinary Man Richard Norton Smith 2023 Unknown English
17159 The Hero Code William H. McRaven 2021 American English
17159 Coach Wooden And Me Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2017 American English
17101 Aphorismen Zur Lebensweisheit Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
17159 Living The 7 Habits Stephen R. Covey American English