New Releases by Alain De Botton

In the summer of 2009, Alain de Botton will be invited by the owners of Heathrow airport to become their first ever Writer in Residence. He will be installed in the middle of Terminal 5 on a raised platform with a laptop connected to screens, enabling passengers to see what he is writing and to come and share their stories. He will meet travellers from around the world, and will be given unprecedented access to wander the airport and speak with everyone from window cleaners and baggage handlers to air traffic controllers and cabin crew. Working with the renowned documentary photographer Richard Baker, de Botton will produce an extraordinary meditation upon the nature of place, time, and our daily lives. He will explore the magical and the mundane, personal and collective experiences and the interactions of travellers and workers all over this familiar but mysterious site. Like all airports, Heathrow (the 15th century village of Heath Row lies beneath the short stay car park) is a ''non-place'' that we by definition want to leave, but it also provides a window into many worlds - through the thousands of people it dispatches every day. A Week at the Airport is sure to delight de Botton''s large following, and anyone interested in the stories behind the way we live.

We spend most of our waking lives at work—in occupations most often chosen by our inexperienced younger selves. And yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what our jobs mean to us. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is an exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully exploring what other people wake up to do each day—and night—to make our frenzied world function. With a philosophical eye and his signature combination of wit and wisdom, Alain de Botton leads us on a journey around an eclectic range of occupations, from rocket scientist to biscuit manufacturer, from accountant to artist—in search of what makes jobs either soul-destroying or fulfilling.

C''est l''histoire d''une passion. Celle du narrateur pour Chloé, rencontrée par hasard à bord d''un vol Paris-Londres. Le hasard fait-il bien les choses ? A partir de cette situation simple et prometteuse, Alain de Botton décortique une relation amoureuse à la lumière d''éminents philosophes : Platon, Pascal, Nietzsche, mais aussi Groucho Marx et quelques autres... Un véritable traité de l''amour en Occident aujourd''hui.

Ve starověkém Řecku a Římě byli filozofové přirozenou autoritou při hledání odpovědí na ty nejnaléhavější otázky. Od té doby se ale myšlenka hledání moudrosti ve filozofii stávala čím dál bizarnější. V knize Útěcha z filozofie se Alain de Botton rozhodl vyvrátit názor, že kvalitní filozofie je vlastně nepodstatná, a spojil ve své knize šest velkých filozofů, kteří věřili, že schopnost filozofického porozumění může mít praktický efekt na životy běžných lidí. A tak nám Sokrates, Epikuros, Seneka, Nietzsche, Montaigne a Shopenhauer pomohou osvětlit takové všeobecné problémy jako neoblíbenost, nedostatek peněz, neschopnost, potíže s láskou, úzkost a pocit marnosti. De Bottonovi se tak daří vrátit filozofii jejímu nejpůvodnějšímu účelu: pomoci nám s žitím.

In the summer of 2009, author Alain de Botton will be given unprecedented access to wander around Heathrow airports. He will speak with everyone from window cleaners and baggage handlers to air traffic controllers and cabin crew, and will meet travellers from around the world, and based on these conversations he will produce a meditation upon the nature of place, time, and our daily lives.

Qu''est-ce qu''un bel édifice ? Quelle influence peut avoir l''architecture sur notre humeur ? Une maison peut-elle apporter le bien-être ou la sérénité ? Dans la plupart de ses livres, Alain de Botton s''intéresse à notre bonheur et cherche les moyens de nous rendre la vie plus harmonieuse. Il se penche ici sur notre cadre de vie et sur l''architecture des lieux où nous vivons et travaillons. En quoi l''un et l''autre influent sur notre mode de pensée, nos comportements, notre existence au quotidien, tel est le sujet de L''Architecture du bonheur. Avec une éblouissante érudition (et beaucoup d''humour), Alain de Botton nous entraîne à travers le monde, de Paris à Tokyo, de Londres à Brasilia, à la recherche de la maison idéale.

“There''s no writer alive like de Botton” (Chicago Tribune), and now this internationally heralded author turns his attention to the insatiable human quest for status—a quest that has less to do with material comfort than love. Anyone who’s ever lost sleep over an unreturned phone call or the neighbor’s Lexus had better read Alain de Botton’s irresistibly clear-headed new book, immediately. For in its pages, a master explicator of our civilization and its discontents explores the notion that our pursuit of status is actually a pursuit of love, ranging through Western history and thought from St. Augustine to Andrew Carnegie and Machiavelli to Anthony Robbins. Whether it’s assessing the class-consciousness of Christianity or the convulsions of consumer capitalism, dueling or home-furnishing, Status Anxiety is infallibly entertaining. And when it examines the virtues of informed misanthropy, art appreciation, or walking a lobster on a leash, it is not only wise but helpful.

A wise and utterly original book of travel essays from an international bestselling author that will “give one an expansive sense of wonder” (The Baltimore Sun). Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why. With the same intelligence and insouciant charm he brought to How Proust Can Save Your Life, de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of noticing everything from a seascape in Barbados to the takeoffs at Heathrow. Even as de Botton takes the reader along on his own peregrinations, he also cites such distinguished fellow-travelers as Baudelaire, Wordsworth, Van Gogh, the biologist Alexander von Humboldt, and the 18th-century eccentric Xavier de Maistre, who catalogued the wonders of his bedroom. The Art of Travel is a “refreshing and profoundly readable" book (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Don’t leave home without it.

De Botton acredita que o ambiente afeta as pessoas de tal modo que não seria exagero dizer que a arquitetura é capaz de estragar ou melhorar a vida afetiva ou profissional de alguém. Uma de suas teses é a de que o que buscamos numa obra de arquitetura não está tão longe do que procuramos num amigo. Ao construir uma casa ou decorar um cômodo, as pessoas querem mostrar quem são, lembrar de si próprias e ter sempre em mente como elas poderiam idealmente ser. O lar, portanto, não é um refúgio apenas físico, mas também psicológico, o guardião da identidade de seus habitantes. Seguindo esse raciocínio, o autor conclui nesta obra que quando alguém acha bonita determinada construção, é porque a arquitetura reflete os valores de quem a elogia. Pode até mesmo expor as idéias de um governo. Cada obra de arquitetura expõe uma visão de felicidade.

A study of architecture examines how we both shape and are shaped by our private homes and public edifices and explains how our stylistic choices can be used to increase our chances of happiness.

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.

Au IVe siècle avant J.-C., Épicure disait que celui qui déclarait ne pas être prêt pour la philosophie était comme celui qui se prétendait trop jeune ou trop vieux pour le bonheur. Conscient que les petits travers de l''existence provoquent les plus grands tourments, Alain de Botton a réuni les pensées de six philosophes qui se sont attachés à relativiser les affections ordinaires de l''âme humaine. Ainsi, là où Socrate reste le meilleur remède au sentiment d''impopularité, Épicure saura nous délivrer de l''angoisse de manquer d''argent, là où Sénèque nous soulagera de nos frustrations, Montaigne nous aidera à nous accepter tels que nous sommes. À découvrir les paroles apaisantes de ces philosophes, nous apprendrons tout simplement à être plus heureux, intelligemment plus heureux...

A man accused by women of narcissism tries to show more interest in his next one, only to discover women don''t like too much attention either. A romantic comedy set in Britain by the author of On Love.

The author of On Love returns with the story of the ups and downs of an affair between Alice and Eric, complete with drawings and diagrams and a chorus of thinkers about love--from Descartes to Aretha Franklin.

Weaving in Aristotle, Wittgenstein, history, religion and Groucho Marx, the unnamed narrator charts the progress of his affair with Chloe; from lust, to tenderness, private jokes, anxieties and heartbreak. When the affair is over he swears off romantic love, until he meets Rachel.