New Releases by Alain de Botton

Beschouwingen over de relatie tussen het welbevinden van de mens en zijn omgeving (de architectuur) vanuit kunsthistorisch perspectief.

De Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, continues to be concerned about our happiness, in this case demonstrating lucidly and convincingly that the spaces we inhabit are essential to our well-being. Tracing the way human needs and desires have been served by styles of architecture from Classical to Gothic to Modern, he argues that the stylistic choices of a society can represent both its cherished ideals and qualities it lacks.

In On Seeing and Noticing, Alain de Botton takes everyday concerns such as expressing sadness or being romantic and dispenses advice and observations based on the works of some of history''s greatest writers, artists and thinkers.

Alice croit au Grand Amour, à celui qui dure toujours. A vingt-cinq ans, elle se fait une idée très précise du Prince Charmant. A tel point qu''aucun prétendant n''a jamais ravi son cœur Mais voilà qu''un candidat hors normes se présente. Les débuts d''Eric, jeune banquier courtois et jovial, sont prometteurs. Week-end enchanteurs, discussions enflammées, sexualité enthousiaste, Alice est aux anges. Mais toute relation connaît des hauts et des bas. Selon la terminologie de cette science de la vie de couple qu''invente Alain de Botton, il y a le cycle " escalier " et la période " séchoir rotatif ". Ça commence par les mots doux et les embrassades dans le cou et ça se poursuit par les petites trahisons et les silences cruels. Pour résumer la situation il y a deux catégories l''amour et " l''amour de l''amour ", le tout étant de ne pas confondre.

From the internationally heralded author of How Proust Can Change Your Life comes a remarkable book that presents the wisdom of some of the greatest thinkers of the ages as advice for our day to day struggles. "A fine introduction the world of philosophy." —Newsweek Solace for the broken heart can be found in the words of Schopenhauer. The ancient Greek Epicurus has the wisest, and most affordable, solution to cash flow problems. A remedy for impotence lies in Montaigne. Seneca offers advice upon losing a job. And Nietzsche has shrewd counsel for everything from loneliness to illness. The Consolations of Philosophy is a book as accessibly erudite as it is useful and entertaining.

Répond aux questions inhérentes de tout homme. A chaque problème une solution et un philosophe : Socrate consolera l''impopulaire, Epicure le manque d''argent, Sénèque le frustré, Montaigne celui qui ne se sent à la hauteur de rien, Nietzsche de devoir affronter les difficultés et Schopenhauer les chagrins d''amour.

A bestselling author draws on the work of one of history’s most important writers to show us how to best live life in a book that’s "delightfully original.... A self-help book in the deepest sense of the term" (The New York Times). Alain de Botton combines two unlikely genres—literary biography and self-help manual—in the hilarious and unexpectedly practical How Proust Can Change Your Life. Who would have thought that Marcel Proust, one of the most important writers of our century, could provide us with such a rich source of insight into how best to live life? Proust understood that the essence and value of life was the sum of its everyday parts. As relevant today as they were at the turn of the century, Proust''s life and work are transformed here into a no-nonsense guide to, among other things, enjoying your vacation, reviving a relationship, achieving original and unclichéd articulation, being a good host, recognizing love, and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on a first date. It took de Botton to find the inspirational in Proust''s essays, letters and fiction and, perhaps even more surprising, to draw out a vivid and clarifying portrait of the master from between the lines of his work. Here is Proust as we have never seen or read him before: witty, intelligent, pragmatic. He might well change your life.