Excellent book - the best books always stir up controversy

books:

	• How Proust Can Change Your Life Alain De Botton Vintage, 1998 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 106 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Excellent book - the best books always stir up controversy

Looking at the reviews of this book, you wonder whether people are talking about the same book. Some call it excellent, others a complete load of nonsense. I can see why people might complain. They might say that you need to read Proust and not read a guide on Proust. But that misses out what this book is really about. It's not attempting to be a "guide"; It's certainly not attempting to replace Proust. It's just looking at a certain side of Proust's thought; what one might call his therapeutic side, and tracing it very skillfully through the letters and the biography and the novel. It reads unbelievably clearly - and so, if one's feeling ungenerous, it might be accused of being "simplistic," but that's naive. This kind of clarity and lucidity requires an enormous effort and huge talent. Alain de Botton's work is uneven. The Romantic Movement didn't really work, Kiss & Tell was Ok but only OK, but he triumphed in two books; On Love and now this title. I can only urge serious readers to take a look at this book. This is a book that matters. It's going to go down in history as one of the finest, most intelligent pieces of literary criticism of the 20th century.

for more information click here

Charming But Slight

This little book is an enjoyable way to pass some time, but is no substitute for the real thing. I just hope a few people who read it do end up eventually tackling Proust's masterpiece.

reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

The Best of the Bourgeois: Family Dramas of the early 1900s.
My Ponderous Picks for Living Room Reading
Best books on France and the French
Books Read 2005-01
25 Unique Books

search for books
how proust, can, change, life, proust, your

Impressum / about us