Customer Reviews
Nice book - By: T. Young, 03 Sep 2008 
Insightful. Deffo going to read more of ADB's books. Comes at a different angle & solves a lot of modern day problems of living.
An erudite meditation on Marcel Proust's life - and its lessons - By: Rolf Dobelli, 28 Jan 2008 
Are you tired of self-help manuals? Is that because the authors often seem to need help themselves? Or they all spout the same buzzwords & clichés? Or they are banal & boring? It sounds as if you are all self-help-manualed-out. Perhaps you need something different. Try Marcel Proust, revered master of exquisite expression & luminous prose. In Search of Lost Time, also called Remembrance of Things Past, Proust's one-and-a-quarter-million-word magnum opus, does not contain a trite sentence or conventional thought. You can learn much about living from such a profound genius, including how to spend your time, how to see & feel things, & why, sometimes, it is best just to stayin bed. Alain de Botton is your witty, often hilarious guide, providing valuable life lessons from Proust's writings & thoughts. getAbstract finds this ingenious, utterly original treatment thoroughly enjoyable. Wishing you the same.
Sublime - By: Daintree Peters, 21 Jan 2008 I'm afraid to go & read 'In Search...' now,in case it is de Botton that I've been seduced by rather than Proust!
How to appreciate the simple things - By: Damian Patrick Kelly, 09 Aug 2007 Reading anything by de Botton I feel a serenity descend upon me. His writing seems to have a soothing effect & this book was no different.
In "How Proust can change your life" he takes the wisdom to be foundin the novels of Proust & shows how they can help us to live better lives. Or perhaps to make us aware that we live better lives than we think.
There are sections on how to love life, read for yourself, take your time, suffer succesfully, express your emotions, be a good friend, open your eyes, be happyin love & put books down.
I loved this book & it has made me feel I can read Proust & appreciate it properly. Swann's Way is next for me & I am looking forward to it with anticipation. But whether you intend to read Proust or not this book is well worth reading.
de Botton on top form - By: Mr. S. Miller, 21 Jun 2007 There is a sectionin this fantastic, unique workin which de Botton describes Proust's fanatical devotion to John Ruskin, the English art critic, an admiration which verged on infatuation. This book reveals that de Botton feels much the same way about Proust. Happily, the reader is leftin absolutely no doubt as to why the author feels that way so insightful are the observations & so pertinent are the excerpts from "In Search of Lost Time". In fact, those without the time to read Proust's masterpiece (that is, almost everyone) will find no better synthesis of that great novel, & no more persuasive illustration of Proust's brilliance.
The whole experience is truly life-changing and, whilst the title does not reveal this, de Botton himself deserves some of the credit for that too.
