Alain de Botton
goodreads author profile
born
December 20, 1969
gender
male
place of birth
Zurich, Switzerland
website
genre
Nonfiction
influences
Seneca, Marcel Proust, Montaigne, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert
member since
June 2007
about this author
Alain de Botton is a writer and television producer who lives in London and aims to make philosophy relevant to everyday life. He can be contacted by email directly via www.alaindebotton.com
He is a writer of essayistic books, which refer both to his own experiences and ideas- and those of artists, philosophers and thinkers. It's a style of writing that has been termed a 'philosophy of everyday life.'
His first book, Essays in Love [titled On Love in the US], minutely analysed the process of falling in and out of love. The style of the book was unusual, because it mixed elements of a novel together with reflections and analyses normally found in a piece of non-fiction. It's a book of which many readers are still fonde...more
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avg rating: 3.81
| 6,326 ratings
| 960 reviews
| 26 distinct works
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109 fans
More books by Alain de Botton…
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How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.76 — 1,051 ratings — published 1383 21 editions |
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The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.90 — 949 ratings — published 2002 14 editions |
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On Love: A Novel by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.88 — 864 ratings — published 1993 16 editions |
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The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.95 — 791 ratings — published 2000 23 editions |
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The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.68 — 594 ratings — published 2006 16 editions |
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Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.74 — 556 ratings — published 2005 16 editions |
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The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping, and the Novel by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.69 — 207 ratings — published 1994 4 editions |
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Kiss & Tell by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.59 — 168 ratings — published 1995 5 editions |
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The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.51 — 164 ratings — published 2009 16 editions |
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On Seeing and Noticing (Pocket Penguin 70's #70) by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author) avg rating 3.80 — 46 ratings — published 2005 2 editions |
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interviews
February 2009,
Alain de Botton
"Adolescents who can't get a date are in a uniquely privileged position: They will have the perfect chance to get grounding in world literature. There is perhaps an important connection between love and reading, there is perhaps a comparable pleasure offered by both." ...More
"Adolescents who can't get a date are in a uniquely privileged position: They will have the perfect chance to get grounding in world literature. There is perhaps an important connection between love and reading, there is perhaps a comparable pleasure offered by both." ...More
more interviews »
Alain's recent updates (rss)
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Alain
gave  to:
An Intimate History of Humanity (Paperback) by Theodore Zeldin |
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Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure (Paperback) by René Girard |
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| November 10, 2008 | ||
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What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question (Mass Market Paperback) by Po Bronson |
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| October 24, 2008 | ||
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Alain
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Praeterita: The Autobiography of John Ruskin (Oxford Letters & Memoirs) by John Ruskin |
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Alain
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The Elements of Drawing (Paperback) by John Ruskin |
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Alain
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Sesame and Lilies (Paperback) by John Ruskin |
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Alain
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Selected Writings (Oxford World's Classics) by John Ruskin |
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Alain
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On Art and Life (Penguin Great Ideas) by John Ruskin |
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Alain
gave to:
Unto This Last and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) by John Ruskin |
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"We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease."
— Alain de Botton (On Love: A Novel)
— Alain de Botton (On Love: A Novel)
"That said, deciding to avoid other people does not necessarily equate with having no desire whatsoever for company; it may simply reflect a dissatisfaction with what—or who—is available. Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards. In Chamfort's words, 'It is sometimes said of a man who lives alone that he does not like society. This is like saying of a man that he does not like going for walks because he is not fond of walking at night in the forêt de Bondy.'"
— Alain de Botton (Status Anxiety)
— Alain de Botton (Status Anxiety)
"Rather than teasing the buyers, we may blame the society in which they lived for setting up a situation where the purchase of ornate cabinets felt psychologically necessary and rewarding, where respect was dependent on baroque displays. Rather than a tale of greed, the history of luxury could more accurately be read as a record of emotional trauma. It is the legacy of those who have felt pressured by the disdain of others to add an extraordinary amount to their bare selves in order to signal that they too may lay a claim to love."
— Alain de Botton (Status Anxiety)
— Alain de Botton (Status Anxiety)
polls
Alain de Botton is writing A Week At The Airport A Heathrow Diary live at Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport the week of August 17, 2009. What do you think?
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Next Best Boo...: Jason's 2009 Good (and not so good) Reads | 23 | 263 | Aug 21, 2009 08:29AM | |
| The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SUMMER CHALLENGE 2009 | 6765 | 9631 | Aug 31, 2009 10:23PM | |
| Book Haven: Nominate Future Group Read Books! | 38 | 71 | 9 days ago, 06:47AM |
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