Best books … chosen by Felix Dennis

The Essays by Francis Bacon (Oxford, $18). Bacon’s essays are among the most profound, most practical (and sneakiest) set of instructions for an entrepreneur ever published. I sleep with a battered copy by my bedside. A terrifying intellect combines with worldly-wise wisdom, the prose pared to the bone. I would not like to play poker with Lord Bacon.

The Aeneid by Virgil (Vintage, $11). One of the most spine-tingling first lines in Western literature—“I sing of arms and the man”—introduces this saga of past loss and future promise, as a Trojan prince flees from the ruins of his city to found what will become the greatest empire in the world. “Recall your courage; banish gloomy fears. Someday, perhaps the memory of these things shall yield delight.” Stirring stuff.

The Prince and Other Writings by Niccolò Machiavelli (Everyman’s Library, $8). Political and economic realism in the management of human affairs or a philosophy of rotten and debased selfishness? The debate has raged on (and on) in academic circles for 500 years. Not an easy read, but still in print and still impressive for those on the make—or even those who have made it.

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Letters to His Son by Lord Chester­field (Oxford, $17). “The morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master” was Dr. Johnson’s opinion of the urbane earl. Maybe so, but Chesterfield’s letters to his illegitimate son, Philip, still contain witty, relevant advice for getting ahead. For a man who thought laughter “the height of vulgarity,” he’s funny, too: “A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.”

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh (Touchstone, $14). Vincent’s poignant letters to his brother, Theo, will break your heart. Better still, they may inspire you to never give in. By exposing both the futility and glory of human endeavor, van Gogh makes the getting of money seem easy

in comparison.

The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher (Phaidon, $40). Like the poet Emily Dickinson, the great graphic designer Alan Fletcher “tells the truth but tells it slant.” If you wish to be far richer than your neighbor, then you, too, will need to see things differently from others. This cacophony of visual and literary wit may help. And it’s gorgeous to look at.