Alain de Botton
Author of The Consolations of Philosophy
About the Author
Born in Zurich, Switzerland on December 20, 1969, Alain de Botton was educated at Cambridge University, England, and now divides his time between London and Washington, D.C. With the publication of his first novel, Essays in Love, de Botton quickly became one of the most talked about British show more novelists of the 1990s. Although the basic plot of Essays in Love (published in the U.S. as On Love) is a rather typical love story, de Botton presents it in a unique and humorous way. De Botton's other novels include The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping and the Novel, which is written in a similar style to Essays on Love, and Kiss and Tell, which follows a would-be biographer as he attempts to write the life story of the first person he encounters. The Course of Love is his latest novel and is on the bestsellers list. Alain de Botton is also the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Alain de Botton
Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion (2012) 1,365 copies, 43 reviews
Status Anxiety [DVD] 4 copies
The Art of Travel [DVD] 2 copies
Havaalanında Bir Hafta 1 copy
WHO AM I 1 copy
Filosofie voor beginners 1 copy
Associated Works
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen (2009) — Contributor — 377 copies, 18 reviews
Journey Around My Room and a Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room (Hesperus Classics) (1794) — Foreword, some editions — 83 copies, 2 reviews
Take My Advice: Letters to the Next Generation from People Who Know a Thing or Two (2002) — Contributor — 47 copies
Lapham's Quarterly - Lines of Work: Volume IV, Number 2, Spring 2011 (2011) — Contributor — 30 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Botton, Alain de
- Legal name
- Botton, Alain de
- Birthdate
- 1969-12-20
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Switzerland (birth)
UK (residence) - Birthplace
- Zürich, Switzerland
- Places of residence
- Zurich, Switzerland
London, England, UK
Washington, DC, USA - Education
- The Dragon School, Oxford
Harrow School
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (B.A.)
King's College London (M.Phil.|1992)
Harvard University - Occupations
- essayist
philosopher
novelist
broadcaster
documentary producer
columnist (show all 8)
lecturer
screenwriter - Relationships
- de Botton, Charlotte (wife)
- Organizations
- The School of Life (founder)
Living Architecture (founder ∙ creative director ∙ chairman)
The Independent on Sunday (columnist)
TED (speaker) - Awards and honors
- Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (2011)
Royal Institute of British Architects (Honorary Fellow)
Members
Reviews
The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton
came in bio of things bookbox & will leave in the For Arts Sake bookbox; The chapters sum up the essays in each section: Departure, Motives, Landscape, Art and Return. In particular, I liked the thoughts about sketching and word painting, instead of photos, as those skills involve you in the experience more. And I'll lever look at Cypress trees the same again. Good use of Van Gogh's painting against a photo of a real tree. I never looked enough to realize that there's a difference in how Cypress, Olive and Oak trees assemble their branches. Illustrations throughout the book were lovely and enhanced the essays. A note to the next reader - take your time between essays. This is not a book to swoop through.… (more)
½
An enjoyable read, with many thought-provoking observations.
Proust has been a puzzle to me. I read all of Swann's Way, but the big read of the whole things seems difficult to me, and has thrown better people (Virginia Wolfe, say) than me. The BBC adaptation I listened to was superb, but not really Proust. This is a sort of, but not really, self-help based on Proust, and as such is a very good survey of the themes of the book though without much discussion of its mechanics (unlike, say, all books about Ulysses). I still might or might not take on the whole series, but between the BBC version and this one, I understand more of what's going on. Oddly, when reading the books, Ulysses is more understandable to me than Recherché. This has the benefit of being short, and also brining in lots of things you might not get from the books, but without Proust's amazing prose.… (more)
Appropriately enough, I read ‘The News: A User’s Manual’ during a weekend of news-avoidance. There has been too much news lately and it stresses me out to constantly confront the apparent collapse of society, the economy, and the environment thanks to Brexit, Trump, and climate change (to name but the three main headings of news I read). I recommend completely avoiding the news at weekends as a relaxation technique. This is probably easier if, like me, you hate smart phones and don’t have a TV. Anyway, Alain de Botton agrees that the news is hard to deal with and accordingly he has advice. I don’t disagree with his analyses as such, however I find his tone ever-so-slightly patronising. Perhaps because he always sounds so calmly definite, like a textbook. That fits with the description of the book as a manual, of course. However, it jibes with my personal taste for hedging, qualifying statements, and admitting to uncertainty. De Botton sounds so damn comfortably sure about everything! What must that be like? It’s a personal preference, in any event, and did not detract more than marginally from my appreciation of the book. (Notice the hedging there - apparently an introvert characteristic.)
De Botton’s manual uses a range of examples, covering most subcategories of news that confronts us daily. Or at least did until a last year, when ‘implosion of US’ and ‘implosion of UK’ came to merit their own subsections. In each case, he invites the reader to consider the story’s deeper meaning, wider context, and how it could be structured or presented more usefully. There are wise and well-expressed comments to be found amongst these short chapters. A couple that especially struck me:
One rather delightful thing I learned from this book was Flaubert’s intense antipathy towards the news, which he skewered in a posthumously published 'Dictionary of Received Ideas'. De Botton quotes the following samples:
He then suggests some additional clichés more suited to a hundred and fifty years later:
I’m not sure that the De Botton approach is sufficiently robust to deal with the current febrile insanity of the news, which gives the relentless impression of constant and unstoppable chaotic collapse. Nor do his generally sensible suggestions for its improvement seem remotely likely to eventuate. At times, I think total avoidance of news is the only way to prevent yourself being overwhelmed. Nonetheless, I found this book a thoughtful and interesting perspective on how we experience news and how it could it made better. The edition I read was also rather beautiful, with visible page stitching and pleasing use of red ink for italics.… (more)
De Botton’s manual uses a range of examples, covering most subcategories of news that confronts us daily. Or at least did until a last year, when ‘implosion of US’ and ‘implosion of UK’ came to merit their own subsections. In each case, he invites the reader to consider the story’s deeper meaning, wider context, and how it could be structured or presented more usefully. There are wise and well-expressed comments to be found amongst these short chapters. A couple that especially struck me:
Societies become modern, the philosopher Hegel suggested, when news replaces religion as our central source of guidance and our touchstone of authority. In the developed economies, the news now occupies a position of power at least equal to that formerly enjoyed by the faiths. [...] But the news doesn’t just follow a quasi-religious timetable. It also demands that we approach it with some of the same deferential expectations we would once have harboured of the faiths. Here, too, we hope to receive revelations, learn who is good and bad, fathom suffering and understand the unfolding logic of existence.
[...]
Herein rests an enormous and largely uncomprehended power: the power to assemble the picture that citizens end up having of one another; the power to dictate what our idea of ‘other people’ will be like; the power to invent a nation in our imaginations.
This power is so significant because the stories the new deploys end up having a self-determining effect. If we are regularly told that many of our countrymen are crazed and violent, we will be filled with fear and distrust whenever we go outside. If we receive subtle messages that money and status matter above all, we will feel humiliated by ordinary life. If it’s implied that all politicians lie, we’ll quietly put our idealism and innocence aside and mock every one of their plans and pronouncements. And if we’re told that the economy is the most important indicator of fulfilment and that it will be a disaster for a decade at least, we will be unable to face reality with much confidence ever again.
One rather delightful thing I learned from this book was Flaubert’s intense antipathy towards the news, which he skewered in a posthumously published 'Dictionary of Received Ideas'. De Botton quotes the following samples:
BUDGET Never balanced.
CHRISTIANITY Freed the slaves.
EXERCISE Prevents all illnesses. To be recommended at all times.
PHOTOGRAPHY Will make painting obsolete.
He then suggests some additional clichés more suited to a hundred and fifty years later:
3D PRINTING In future, everything will be 3D-printed. Express surprise and awe at the prospect.
INTERNET Has made concentration impossible. So hard now to read long novels.
MANDARIN Language of the future.
I’m not sure that the De Botton approach is sufficiently robust to deal with the current febrile insanity of the news, which gives the relentless impression of constant and unstoppable chaotic collapse. Nor do his generally sensible suggestions for its improvement seem remotely likely to eventuate. At times, I think total avoidance of news is the only way to prevent yourself being overwhelmed. Nonetheless, I found this book a thoughtful and interesting perspective on how we experience news and how it could it made better. The edition I read was also rather beautiful, with visible page stitching and pleasing use of red ink for italics.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 37
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 23,850
- Popularity
- #880
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 484
- ISBNs
- 695
- Languages
- 27
- Favorited
- 84
