Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious characters

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Across a long career, London native Keith McNally has created many of New York City's buzziest restaurants, including the Odeon, Balthazar, and Minetta Tavern. In his best-selling recent memoir, I Regret Almost Everything, he describes how books and films shaped him.

'Bel-Ami' by Guy de Maupassant (1885)

I often gravitate to books with an amoral central character, and Bel-Ami contains one of the most compelling. Georges Duroy arrives in Paris as an innocent but opportunistic young man from the provinces who ascends several rungs up the social ladder by exploiting his charm and good looks. Even shallow, uneducated men can succeed if they're calculating enough. Buy it here.

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'Arabian Sands' by Wilfred Thesiger (1959)

This is Thesiger's account of his extraordinary journey—on foot and by camel—through the scorched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia, the largest sand desert in the world. Written in clear, concise prose that reflects a life unhampered by possessions, Arabian Sands is an austere masterpiece. Buy it here.

'The Good Soldier' by Ford Madox Ford (1915)

The Good Soldier is the most intriguing book I've ever read. On the surface, it's a novel about two couples who share similar traits and who have seemingly perfect marriages. Subtitled "A Tale of Passion," it's also an extraordinary story of broken hearts and betrayal. Buy it here.

'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy (1878)

Nabokov once said that people approach Tolstoy with mixed feelings: They love the artist in him but are bored by the preacher. I agree. That said, Anna Karenina is my absolute favorite book in the world, a monumental tale of doomed passion in which Tolstoy gives a panoramic view of Russia in the 1870s, when the scent of revolution was already in the air. Buy it here.

'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' by John le Carré (1963)

Graham Greene called this "the best spy story I've ever read." Le Carré's groundbreaking espionage novel created a shadowy, existential world never before portrayed. This absolutely brilliant book transcends its genre. Buy it here.

'An American Tragedy' by Theodore Dreiser (1925)

This classic novel explores the dark side of the American Dream. Clyde Griffiths, the son of impoverished street preachers, has blistering aspirations that spiral tragically out of control. The book is an intensely detailed and closely observed novel of greed and ambition in early 20th-century America. Buy it here.