How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton

How Proust Can Change Your Life Reviews

• 
  anozama

  This book is a tasty appetiser for anyone considering reading a bit of (or a lot of) Proust. Teasing out several themes representative of Proust's refections, De Botton elegantly combines novel excerpts, vignettes from Proust's life, and a perceptive and amusing commentary on both.We're told how Proust said he would spend his final weeks if given notice of impending doom; how rich, deep, complex and worth savouring he found life; how strongly he advocated continually learning from misfortune.We learn how vividly he identified fictional characters with real ones; how alert he was to the artistic skill of highlighting what the audience knew but had never articulated; and how passionate he was for originality, hence authenticity, versus imitation and cliché.De Botton describes Proust's emphatic distinction between the amount of truth to be found in books and the amount to be found in relationships; and his delight in the edification of books in combination with continuing to think for ourselves.He goes on to illustrate the ways Proust emphasised the importance of appreciating what you have, rather than what you might have; the value of the humble compared to the exalted; the greater reward we find in things we have had to yearn for; and how readily familiarity breeds contempt.We are left in no doubt that Proust can change our life for the better.
• 
  Lord Copper

  Alain de Boton is a supremely elegant writer. This is a charming, witty, precise and clever book, which delivers an amusing yet respectful portrait of the enigmatic Proust. It makes you reflect on how to live life but in a subtle rather than sledgehammer style. It also made me laugh out loud a number of times. I will reread this many times I am sure. Bravo Mr de Boton.
• 
  tj

  I am struggling to like this book which I had such high hopes for. Not even half way through any my glance is slipping to other books. This is not like Alain De Botton's lectures. No laugh out loud or even giggle moments from this thus far. A few chapters in,only one digestible insight. I will endeavour to finish it and hope it will change my mind.
• 
  Nick Henley

  Loved this. Great observations about the great observer. Easy to read and very thought provoking.
• 
  good hair day

  I bought this book as an introduction to reading Proust literature for the first time. Alain de Botton's book was helpful and I enjoyed it. However, I felt that his opinions were sometimes a little glib.