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
2225 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2610 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
4115 For a New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet 1963 French French
5014 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
5996 After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre 1981 British English
6422 The Lonely Crowd David Riesman 1950 American English
6766 Mc Guffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer William Holmes McGuffey 1836 American English
7215 Representative Men Ralph Waldo Emerson 1850 American English
10303 Character Analysis Wilhelm Reich 1945 German German
10303 An Actor Prepares Konstantin Stanislavski 1936 Russian Russian
11939 Theodore Roosevelt Henry F. Pringle 1931 American English
13359 The Great Tradition F. R. Leavis 1948 British English
13359 Household Education Harriet Martineau 1848 British English
13878 Self Help Samuel Smiles 1859 British English
14068 The Road To Character David Brooks 2015 American English
14754 Letters To His Children Theodore Roosevelt 1919 American English
14830 Leadership Doris Kearns Goodwin 2018 American English
17114 Theophrastus William Wall Fortenbaugh, Dimitri Gutas 1992 Greek English
17114 The Gentleman In Trollope Shirley Robin Letwin 1982 British English
17114 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey 1989 American English
17114 They Call Me Coach John Wooden, Jack Tobin 1972 American English
17114 The Book Of Virtues William Bennett 1993 American English
17114 An Ordinary Man Richard Norton Smith 2023 Unknown English
17114 The Hero Code William H. McRaven 2021 American English
17114 Coach Wooden And Me Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 2017 American English
17107 Aphorismen Zur Lebensweisheit Arthur Schopenhauer 1851 German German
17114 Living The 7 Habits Stephen R. Covey American English