How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel

by Alain de Botton (Goodreads author)

book data

1,036 ratings, 3.73 average rating, 132 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		37%
3		29%
2		6%
1		2%

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published

April 28th 1998 (first published 1383) by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 208 pages

isbn

0679779159 (isbn13: 9780679779155)

description

This is a genius-level piece of writing that manages to blend literary biography with self-help and tongue-in-cheek with the profound. The quirky, ea...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,623)

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07/10/08

Matt rated it:

My wife and I fell in love reading this book together (way back in September/October 2002). I don't know what anyone else will think of this book, but I'll never enjoy reading a book more. B and I left a note on Proust's grave when we visited Paris on our honeymoon. He is the (gay) patron saint of our marital union. Here's my best advice: read this book with a loved one.

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08/16/07

R. rated it:

bookshelves: 2007

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: violently miserable writers

Sometimes it's the book you grab at the last second--not the books you came to the library for--that you end up sitting up with all night long.

Afterwards, sat outside with Mickey and reminisced about our childhood and what we expected from the future.

Also, that what we really wanted at 2 a.m. was a truckstop-black, piping hot coffee..."Yeah, me too! Why is that?"

We both...we both get that craving at 2 a.m.

Earlier, I picked up my copy o...more

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02/14/08

Laura rated it:

"Proust said the great momments - like when he ate the madeleine dipped in tea - are those when we escape time. We do what we do in the present but we experience the same action in the past. Thus we are nowhere, neither in past nor present, the miracle of an analogy has freed us from the lockstep of time. He does not explain why this freedom should be so desireable, but presumably it is because time moves in only one direction, toward weakness and death. We embrace the things that allo...more

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03/18/08

Maggie rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, most-highly-recommended, non-fiction

This book really can change your life. It can also make you laugh, and expand your vocabulary.

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04/19/08

Jenny rated it:

I really enjoyed this little book. It’s not like I’ve ever actually read Proust, except in quotation marks. And after reading this book, I don’t feel any strong urge to do so. It’s full of fascinating little anecdotes about Proust’s life, but it also wanders lazily and charmingly through the things that one can learn from Proust’s work. The main thing is to pay really close attention to every moment – great advice for any writer, great advice for anyone. In illustrating how Pro...more

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06/30/09

Daniel rated it:

bookshelves: general-nonfiction

A few years ago someone pointed out to me that the words "envy" and "jealousy" mean slightly different things; in the first case, the word implies only that you want something someone else has, whereas the second also includes the idea that you have a just claim to the desired object. Having said that, I would say that I am jealous of Alain de Botton rather than envying him; I mean, does this guy say anything deeper than what I spout off after a few glasses of wine? This litt...more

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06/11/09

Colleen rated it:

Read in January, 2007

I'm not sure why I read this book--I've never read Proust's In Search of Lost Time. I'm not sure why I continued to read it after I learned the entire book tied in with In Search of Lost Time. But I did and I'm glad--I enjoyed it. Reading In Search of Lost Time may have helped in understanding How Proust Can Change Your Life but it certainly wasn't necessary. I was drawn in by the opening: "There are few things humans are more dedicated to than unhappiness. Had we been placed on earth ...more

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06/24/09

Kat rated it:

What I learned from this book can only be summed up by saying simply that I am firmly against self-help books - every one, except this.

Alain de Botton wowed me before with his Consolations of Philosophy, which left me with an overwhelming sense of clarity, and my friends in the certainty that I had finally lost the plot entirely. It was on the back of that incredible work that I picked up his in-depth treatise on Proust's In Search of Lost Time. It has never really occured to me to read P...more

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02/26/09

Prashant R rated it:

Read in January, 2007

N'allez pas trop vite !

Yes, don't go so fast...stop, savor and enjoy the many extraordinary pleasures of the ordinary things which are strewn around your everyday life.

This gem of a book is filled with these kind of delightful bon-mots distilled from Proust's life and works. Alain De Botton's entertaining,educating and often illuminating book belongs to a unique genre. It is is part literary criticism, part exploration of Proust's life and work and a part self-help manua...more

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02/08/09

Catherine rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, non-fiction, theatre-and-acting

Read in February, 2009

recommended to Catherine by: Neil
recommends it for: Brian, Joy, Lindsay Garvey, Beth, Jean Ann, Neil Gaiman

Upon the reccomendation of a friend I picked "How Proust Can Change Your Life" up, although I've read only excerpts of the first volume of "In Search of Lost Time". Not only do I find myself wanting to give Proust a more serious try, but I also find a desire to live my life differently. In fact, I think subtle changes are already taking place. It's not so much about changing your entire lifestyle as it is about changing how you see your life. According to de Botton throug...more

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05/01/09

Evanston Public Library added it

Read in June, 2009

If you think that a lazy, hypochondriacal, long-winded 19th Century French fancy man can have no relevance to your everyday life, then this book may just change your mind. No prior knowledge of Proust or his epic, seven volume novel In Search of Lost Time is necessary in order to read and enjoy this book, which falls somewhere between the realms of biography, lit crit, and self-help manual. In between sprinklings of delightfully odd facts from Proust’s life, De Botton analyzes the man’s noto...more

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05/03/09

Elaine rated it:

One of these days I'm going to get to the bottom of why I read so many books *about* Proust and so little actual Proust. It could be laziness...and some have leveled a related charge at de Botton, i.e., that he is a writer who delivers palatable, bite-size, and effortlessly digestible chunks of philosophy to lazy and busy folks such as myself, enabling us to swan about feeling more erudite than we deserve and perhaps even being able to maintain a respectable conversational footing amongst bette...more

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02/13/09

Katie Muffett rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Having watched a few of Botton's programs here in the UK, I recognised his clear and ingenuous speech in his writing. Not being particularly interested in Proust's writing (nor James Joyce's, incidentally) but fascinated by the man himself, this was a perfect read. I only give it four stars simply because the book is by nature likely to hit on a sliding scale of relevance for each person it 'changes'. It didn't really change me all that much, but it made Marcel relatable in a way that any biogra...more

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02/14/09

Theresa rated it:

bookshelves: fiction, self-help

Read in April, 2009

Things I liked:
1) its conciseness. and portability
2) clear organization. self help books that aren't organized just confuse me more
3) part biography about proust. i may want to read him in the future, once i can handle the fact that his prose is . . . somewhat lengthy in style.
4) amusing. doesn't take itself too seriously. the drawings? hilarious! couldn't help but laugh out loud on the train.
5) the few lessons the book tries to hit home. not too many. all quite no...more

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11/02/08

Miles Wang rated it:

Read in April, 2007

The starting point of How Proust can change your Life is that a great novel can be nothing less than life-transforming. This is an unusual claim: our education system, while stressing that novels are highly worthwhile, rarely investigates why this is so. How Proust can change your Life takes Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time as the basis for a sustained investigation into the power and significance of literature. Proust’s novel, almost a byword for obscurity and irrelevance, emerges as ...more The starting point of How Proust can change your Life is that a great novel can be nothing less than life-transforming. This is an unusual claim: our education system, while stressing that novels are highly worthwhile, rarely investigates why this is so. How Proust can change your Life takes Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time as the basis for a sustained investigation into the power and significance of literature. Proust’s novel, almost a byword for obscurity and irrelevance, emerges as an invaluable source of insight into the workings of love, society, art and the meaning of existence.

The book reveals Proust’s thoughts on how to revive a relationship, choose a good doctor, enjoy a holiday, make friends and respond to insult. A vivid portrait of the eccentric yet deeply sympathetic author is built up out of extracts from his letters, essays and fiction and is combined with a commentary on the power of literature to change our lives.

When Marcel Proust was asked by a French newspaper how he would spend his last hours on earth if he knew that a great disaster was about to end his life, he replied that he would throw himself at the feet of Miss X, go to the Louvre and take a little excursion to India. All that seems a trivial adventurous for a man who seemed to have a hard time making it out of bed, but Alain de Botton's book has as an extended answer to the question posed by the newspaper.

How can ''In search of Lost Times'' make you a better person? In lots of ways, says Mr. de Botton. Proust may not help you flatten your stomach or thin your thighs, but his works can assist you in a more subtle manner. From Proust's work, de Botton divines nine different means for self-improvement, and devotes a chapter to each. Some of the steps are obvious, as in Chapter 2: ''How to be a Good Friend.'' Proust used to tip waiters 200 percent. But some are unexpected, as in Chapter 8: ''How to Be Happy in Love.'' He wrote to his friend Andre Gide that had his character Swann actually existed, he could have helped him in his romance with Odette.

My favorite chapter is ''How to Suffer Successfully.'' Proust was a world-class sufferer. The details of his life make for painful reading: he endured a series of painful health problems - asthma, insomnia, cough and dizziness - he had poor eyesight and sensitive skin, and was possessed by the fear of mice. He died young and misunderstood. Yet the tone of ''In search of Lost Times'' is anything but long-suffering.

Proust’s masterpiece is inspiring because he never gets better and he is never tempted to blame others for his problems. He welcomes suffering as an opportunity for thinking up fresh ideas and for entering into a richer experience.

“Our best chance for contentment,” he writes “lies in taking up the wisdom offered to us in coded form through our coughs, and to avoid the ingratitude of those who blame the past, the bores, the time and the weather.” These are the morals of Proust’s tale.

It’s good medicine: it can cure what ails us.
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10/07/08

Mr. rated it:

Disappointing self-help/literary guidebook that came utterly lavished with positive reviews; The New Yorker said of the book "Curious, humorous, didactic and dazzling...It contains more human interest and play of fancy than most fiction." Maybe I'm missing something or was just looking for something else, but it seems to me that Alain de Botton's book is nothing more than a banal self-help book that is more eloquently written than the other works in this dubious genre. Botton doesn't o...more Disappointing self-help/literary guidebook that came utterly lavished with positive reviews; The New Yorker said of the book "Curious, humorous, didactic and dazzling...It contains more human interest and play of fancy than most fiction." Maybe I'm missing something or was just looking for something else, but it seems to me that Alain de Botton's book is nothing more than a banal self-help book that is more eloquently written than the other works in this dubious genre. Botton doesn't offer the reader much in the way of literary analysis or explication, rather, he merely uses the life (and scatterings of the work) of Marcel Proust to launch into his mediocre prescriptions for living. Surprisingly, little is actually said about In Search of Lost Time, the author prefers to inundate the reader with scatterings of anecdotes about Proust's health problems and social life. There are a few sections which are worthwhile, such as the great "what if it could have been another way?" conversation between Proust and James Joyce that reads like,

"PROUST [while taking furtive stabs at an homard a l'americaine, huddled in his fur coat]: Monsieur Joyce, do you know the Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre?
JOYCE: Please, appelez-moi James. Le Duc! What a close and excellent friend, the kindest man I have met from here to Limerick.
PROUST: Really? I am so glad we agree [beaming at the discovery of his common acquaintance], though I have not yet been to Limerick.
VIOLET SCHIFF [leaning across, with a hostess's delicacy, to Proust]: Marcel, do you know Jame's big book?
PROUST: Ulysses? Naturellement. Who had not read the masterpiece of our new century? [Joyce blushes modestly, but nothing can disguise his delight].
VIOLET SCHIFF: Do you remember any passages in it?
PROUST: Madame, I remember the entire book. For instance, when the hero goes to the library, excuse my anglais, but I cannot resist [starting to quote]: "Urbane, to comfort them, the quaker librarian purred..." (pg. 112).

There is also some interesting discouragement from Virginia Woolf upon reading Proust's great masterpiece,

"I detest my own vocabulary. Why be always spouting words? [...] Take up Proust after dinner and put him down. This is the worst time of all. It makes me suicidal. Nothing seems left to do. All seems insipid and worthless." (pg. 187).

Unfortunately however, How Proust can Change Your Life is ultimately an overstated, dressed up self-help book with many useless suggestions about how you should live. It is not substantive literary criticism. For the latter, I suggest you seek out the work of Edmund Wilson. (less)

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09/18/08

Derek rated it:

(review of isbn 1572700971)

This book is full of keen observations and great writing. Ironically, I haven't read any Proust, but now I feel well-acquainted with him. Also sympathetic. The book features some biographical background on the French writer, but it mostly expounds on some key universal truths and lessons to be gleaned from his writing.

It's divided into nine chapters, all about how to improve your performance in certain areas of life...be it love, friendship, or appreciating life. Every chapter is based...more

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02/09/08

pardis rated it:

(review of isbn 9644482158)

Read in November, 2008

آلن دو باتن در كتاب حاضر كوشيده است تا زندگينامه‌گونه‌اي درخشان و نقد ادبي پرطنزي از اين شخصيت ادبي شاخص قرن بيستم و اثر مهم او، در جستجوي زمان ازدست‌رفته، ارائه دهد. كتاب بسيار خواندني است و تلاش كرده است تا، در تمام جزئيات و ظرايف رمان برجستة مارسل پروست، پيامي و تصويري بر�...more

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07/16/07

Jolly rated it:

To be honest, this book was just OK for me. I was a little underwhelmed with de Botton himself as an author. I know the focus was on Proust, but I really would have rather preferred to have read the original works myself (despite the crazy length of "In Search of Lost Time"). De Botton really only presented a list of Proust's quotes with some biographical information thrown in there to help it make sense, but didn't add anything original of himself into the mix (which is one of the rea...more

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06/18/09

Unbridled rated it:

Read in June, 2009

Did not know what to expect here and there is not much to say except to note its breezy charm and bright sense of humor. Quick, light, enjoyable read. I close with a Proust quote from the book, apropos of nothing: "We imagine that we know exactly what things are and people think, for the simple reason that we do not care about them. But as soon as we have a desire to know, as the jealous man has, then it becomes a kaleidoscope in which we can no longer distinguish anything."

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