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• Extract
• Synopsis
• Reviews
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• Biography
• More titles by Alain de Botton

Awards

Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize : --Select a value--

Orwell Prize : --Select a value--

Synopsis

Bestselling philosophical writer Alain de Botton, author of Status Anxiety and The Art of Travel, explores how philosophy can help us with everyday problems in his number-one bestseller The Consolations of Philosophy.

The inspiration for the TV series Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness

Alain de Botton, bestselling author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, has set six of the finest minds in the history of philosophy to work on the problems of everyday life. Here then are Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on some of the things that bother us all: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform.

‘Singlehandedly, de Botton has taken philosophy back to its simplest and most important purpose: helping us live our lives’ Christina Hardyment, Independent

‘No doubt about it, philosophy is the new rock and roll and Alain de Botton is its Colonel Tom Parker…a pleasure to read. And good writing, like good philosophy, is always good consolation’ John Banville, Irish Times

‘Few discussions on the great philosophers can have been so entertaining…an ingenious imaginative book’ Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times

Alain de Botton, writer and philosopher of the everyday, has reached the top of bestseller lists in over 30 countries; he writes on issues that are familiar to each and every one of us in a friendly and accessible style. His other works of non-fiction from Penguin are The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, The Art of Travel, Status Anxiety, The Architecture of Happiness and Religion for Atheists.

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘Singlehandedly, de Botton has taken philosophy back to its simplest and most important purpose: helping us live our lives’
Christine Hardyment, INDEPENDENT

‘No doubt about it, philosophy is the new rock and roll and Alain de Botton is its Colonel Ton Parker…A pleasure to read. And good writing, like good philosophy, is always a consolation’
John Banville, IRISH TIMES

‘Few discussions on the great philosophers can have been so entertaining…an ingenious, imaginative book’
Humphrey Carpenter, SUNDAY TIMES

‘Witty, thoughtful, entertaining…a stylish book, which manages to make philosophy both enjoyable and relevant’
Anthony Clare, LITERARY REVIEW

‘Gentle, helpful and humane…De Botton’s instinct is surely right: if we are to bring philosophy to life we should look again at those thinkers who have sought to be not clever or paradoxical, but simply wise’
Roger Scruton, MAIL ON SUNDAY

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