num_pages: 432
description: A bestseller immediately after its publication in 1859, Self-Help propelled its author to fame and rapidly became one of Victorian Britain's most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance. Interpreted by some as a paean to personal avarice, Smiles'smost celebrated book is in fact a practical and engaging tribute to the working- and lower-middle classes, in whom he identified the capacity for self-improvement and for whom he tirelessly advocated the right of social advancement. Part practical guide, part proverbial testament, part secularhagiography, this literary hybrid turns biography into an inspirational medium that awakens the reader to their own potential and instills the desire to succeed. Smiles's book is the precursor of today's motivational and self-help literature, although its vision is significantly more cosmopolitanthan that of most books in an ever-expanding genre.
language: English
title: Self-Help
titlecomplete: Self-Help
genres: Classics, Self Help, History, Philosophy, Personal Development, Psychology, Business, Unfinished, Nonfiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 369
publisher: Oxford University Press