Self-Help (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Samuel Smiles (Author), Peter W. Sinnema (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: November 28, 2002

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's most 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 secular hagiography, 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 cosmopolitan than that of most books in an ever-expanding genre.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter W. Sinnema is an Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Alberta.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192801767
• ISBN-13: 978-0192801760
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,680,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Victorian Britain's Statement on the Virtues of Hard Work, September 15, 2004

By 

Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Self-Help (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The following review is based on the Oxford World's Classics edition, edited bby Peter W. Sinnema.

'Self-Help' was published in 1859 in England, and became the instant bestseller, with 20,000 copied sold within the year after publication, making Samuel Smiles a household name. It is hard to categorize this book into any genre, but basically 'Self-Help' is a statement on the virtues of hard working, or in Smiles's favorite word, 'perseverance,' amply illustrated by many examples of biographical records collected by Smiles.

The chapter names would show the contents -- 'Self-Help: National and Individual'; 'Leaders of Industry: Inventors and Producers'; 'Three Great Potters'; 'Application and Perseverance'; 'Helps and Opportunities'; 'Workers in Art'; 'Industry and the Peerage'; 'Energy and Courage'; 'Men on Business'; 'Money: It's Use and Abuse'; 'Self-Culture: Facilities and Difficulties'; 'Example: Models'; 'Character: The True Gentleman.'

Each chapter tells you the examples of hard work and its eventual triumph, and with many biographical episodes, Smiles argues the importance of being earnest, no matter where the supposed readers belong to the social ladder of England. For example, in the Chapter 'Three Great Potters' you can see the life of three potters -- Palissy, Bottgher, and Wedgwood -- and how they. in spite of the numerous obstacles rushing to them, succeeded in their art, with which their names were recorded in the history.

Like this, Smiles' book has a pattern -- it states its point first, championing the virtue of hard work, then he supports his statement with mini-biographies about many people, which include that of mechanics, philanthropists, scientist, musicians, soldiers, politicians, merchants, and many others. But as this is written in the middle of the Industrial Revolution, many pages are devoted to the inventors of new machines, or their privation, suffering, and final victory.

Often his styles are preachy, and Smiles didn't include many remarkable women who should have been included (if he does, those women's roles are often as men's 'help-mates'), and it has been pointed out since the publication that the cases Smiles cites as examples are all successful ones. But as it was written long time ago, we should take the book as it is now.

Oxford editon included concise introduction by Peter W. Sinnema, and helpful notes and glossary of the names the book deals with.

This is not a so-called 'how-to' book (if you want to read that way, of course you can), but a good proof as to how Victorian working class and lower-middle class thought about being 'viruous' and 'respectable.' If you want to see the glimpse of Victorian ideas among ordinary people, and how such ideas greatly influenced the writers like Dickens who created Mr. Bounderby in 'Hard Times,' you should read this book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advice for a lean attitude - given over a 100 years ago, December 13, 2007

By 

Ralf Lippold (Leipzig, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self-Help (Paperback)

I have stepped over the title while reading "Why Toyota Became #1" and have got a German version from 1900. It has much insight in it that is still valid today and was a major part of Toyota's starting point to the journey where one in business is looking at.

Focus on your core strengths and eliminate waste, keep doing that constantly and you will be successful.

Easy to read and the stories are very much transferable to the present (even though some of them are a couple of hundreds of years old).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The original and classic self help book!, March 17, 2010

By 

J. Bourne "Personal Development Books" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self Help (Kindle Edition)

Written long before Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich), Wallace D Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich), Charles F. Haanel (The Master Key System) and P. T. Barnum (The Art of Money Getting) this really was the original self help book.

Published in the same year as Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, Smiles outsold Darwin by 10 copies to one. Before Amazon, the internet, Oprah's book club and TV adverts, good old fashioned word of mouth advertising ensured this excellent and superbly written book was a huge success.

This is the best version I have seen, easy to read and well formatted for Kindle.