Character
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- General readers interested in character, self-discipline, and responsibility
- Readers who want to understand nineteenth-century British inspirational writing and moral attitudes
- Learners who need an English cultivation reader for thematic extensive reading
- Teachers or book club members looking for discussion material on character education
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting systematic philosophical argument or rigorous academic ethics
- Readers averse to inspirational preaching who prefer modern psychological research
- Readers who accept only contemporary narrative pacing and are unwilling to read nineteenth-century prose
Reading tips
- Read by theme and, after each chapter, summarize the author's core quality in one sentence
- Mark types of example as you read, distinguishing biographical anecdotes from the author's commentary
- After each chapter, write a short critique: which views still apply today, and which need to be understood in their historical context
- Use with book clubs for thematic discussion, choosing one chapter each on honesty, diligence, and courage
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this book a philosophical treatise or an inspirational reader?
What should modern readers keep in mind when reading this book?
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Comments
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About the author
Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was a Scottish author and social reformer known for his inspirational works advocating self-reliance and perseverance. His best-known book, Self Help, uses examples of conduct and perseverance to argue for the value of individual effort, and it was widely read and influential in the Victorian era. He also wrote Character, a study of the formation of moral qualities. Smiles produced biographies of engineers and inventors, including Lives of the Engineers, Lives of Boulton and Watt, Men of Invention and Industry, The Life of Thomas Telford, and Life of a Scotch Naturalist: Thomas Edward. He also wrote The Huguenots in France. Thirteen of his works are held in this collection. Public information is limited; his writing generally uses biographical examples to convey diligence, self-reliance, and practical effort, combining biography with inspirational purpose.
