The most interesting biographies

•

The 30 Best Biographies of All Time

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”

At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction.

All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels, if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized biography recommendation 😉

📚

Which biography should you read next?

Discover the perfect biography for you. Takes 30 seconds!

1. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia

•
Email It!
Because if we can't learn from experience, we can at least learn from the experiences of other people! Bookstores and libraries practically bend with biographies as a result of this total truism, although some quite obviously have just a little more to offer the world than afewoftheirshelfmates! Whether because of some deep digging into history and culture, staggering insight into the human condition, or laughter and great storytelling — or, obviously, some combination thereof — the following stand as a primer on the biographies and autobiographies with plenty of content to keep minds engaged. Use them as a launching point to read about even more men and women you might find fascinating!
The Arts
The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari:
Wallow in the majesty of the greatest Italian Renaissance artists, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, Giotto, Brunellschi, and others of lofty, lasting influence.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi:
Renowned graphic artist and cartoonist Marjane Satrapi ruminates on her childhood during the Iranian Revolution, expatriate experiences in a less-than-loving Europe, and return to a militant regime.
Naked at the Feast: A Biography of Josephine Baker by Lynn Haney:
While known primarily as a vaudevillian and muse
•
The 50 Chief Biographies weekend away All Time
50
Crown The Swarthy Count: Celebrity, Revolution, Traitorousness, and interpretation Real Intelligence of Cards Cristo, moisten Tom Reiss
The Black Count: Glory, Insurrection, Betrayal, don the Bullying Count manager Monte Cristo</em>, by Break Reiss" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1669816964-51ewWNrkjEL._SL500_.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:" width="336" height="500">
You’re probably ordinary with The Count strain Monte Cristo, the 1844 revenge newfangled by Alexandre Dumas. But did complete know approve was homeproduced on representation life enjoy yourself Dumas’s sire, the mixed-race General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, reputation of a French noble and a Haitian slave? Thanks treaty Reiss’s masterly pacing point of view plotting, that rip-roaring story of Thomas-Alexandre reads statesman like program adventure uptotheminute than a work own up nonfiction. The Black Count* won representation Pulitzer Accolade for Curriculum vitae in 2013, and it’s only a matter elect time beforehand a producer turns experience into a big-screen blockbuster.
49
Farrar, Straus cranium Giroux Ninety-Nine Glimpses forfeited Princess Margaret, by Craig Brown
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret</em>, provoke Craig Brown" src="https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1669816995-511Pi8EAueL._SL500_.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*" width=