How Proust Can Change Your Life

Es un libro muy divertido. Excelente compañero para disfrutar más a Proust. Y se puede leer paralelo a “En busca del tiempo…” porque no tiene ‘spoilers’…

I would consider Alain De Botton one of the great modern philosophers of our time. The word philosopher might make you cringe, and I get it, but go listen to his interview on the Tim Ferris podcast. It will help in understanding his perspective on how a philosopher should function in the modern day. He also guides listeners to How Proust Can Change your Life as a good entry point into his work, what he believes in, and a book that he feels has held up since its release. I took the nod, and I’m happy I did.De Botton writes with clarity, concision, and wit. He turns the subject matter, Marcel Proust, and his book In Search of Lost Time, into a thoroughly enjoyable unconventional self-help manual. I say unconventional, but I can only hope the questions you ask yourself after reading this book become conventional in all sorts of ways.I try to imagine selling someone this book. For me, De Botton had me at the chapter titles. Just to name a few: How To Love Life Today, How To Take Your Time, How To Suffer Successfully, How To Be A Good Freind. Compelling questions to think about, and you’ll be surprised to find how Marcel Proust and his masterpiece In Search Of Lost Time provide a point of view on each.Paradoxically the book concludes with a chapter titled How To Put a Book Down. Simple advice but the message speaks to a much large theme that we all could benefit from. That Beneath every piece of art there is an author with a point of view on the world and the greatest homage we can pay to each is to see our world, for a short time, through their eyes. After that short time, it’s ok to admit that for all the beautiful qualities we might see in each genius work it might eventually prove to be silly, maniacal, false, or just wrong. And as you learn to embrace th​is indifference you’ll really start to see how Proust can change your life.

Enjoyed this. De Botton has an extremely unique lens with which he shares his observations . Proust, via de Botton, is less grandiose author and more great seer/Stoic; (albeit an immensely anemic one) which of course is the primary reason to read Proust. De Botton educates you on Proust's rare gift of being able to observe without the pretension of injecting himself into a situation because his way needed be acknowledged. Proust it seems took to heart the lesson of the ancients that it is better to be happy than right. Under de Botton's pen Proust is sketched as indifferent but possessing a cunning in his manner of addressing and dealing with a society he quite couldn't remove himself from, nor fully embrace. Proust's length of admiration for most seemed to be at arms length, and his patient indifference was more forgiving compassion than misanthropic disdain. A solid read. I recommend it.

How Proust Can Change Your Life is a pleasure to read and to ponder. Its observations, though hardly original, seem especially worthwhile at a time when tweets pass for conversation and Facebook postings are a way to stay in touch with friends. Proust and his disciple Alain de Botton advise us to slow down; to take time not only to smell the coffee but savor a croissant or two along with it each morning as you languorously pore over your daily newspaper. Rather than looking for Mr. Right, become him--and start by listening to others rather than nattering endlessly about yourself. Note the beauty in the every day, and acknowledge the irony that one is never more alive or aware of life as when one's own health is threatened by illness.These are but a few of the bon mots found in Proust Can Change Your Life--a delightful literary "self-help" that really is helpful. If not ground-shakingly original, they are life-shakingly worthwhile. In addition to all of the above How Proust Can Change Your Life ponders how great literature can impact our lives and how real creativity is a way of seeing and feeling an experience more deeply and more profoundly than most. Very worthwhile--the sort of book I'm sure I will be returning to.

My 2006 reading project was to get through Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time and De Botton's book was a great help at the end.I love Proust's long meandering dreamy sentences describing the things and people the narrator encounters, but I tend to tune out when Proust explains his theories on how memory works, on how we should appreciate a work of art, of how we should read a book, etc.De Botton concentrates precisely on the parts of Proust I find most tedious, and in his short book he gives us a sampling of Proust's philosophical approach to life. What's more, De Botton takes pertinent passages in ISoLT and contrasts them with how Proust actually lived his own life. Sometimes Proust writes one way but lives a different way; for example he was a great friend, generous and attentive, but he writes that friendship is a waste of time. Which is his true opinion? Probably not that friendship is a waste of time... But the point is that De Botton breathed life into parts of Proust I previously dismissed, including the last hundred pages where the narrator finally experiences the "how and why" of his life.I'm always a little suspicious of self-help books. Too often they're written by quacks and sometimes the advice they give can be dangerous. I'm also always open to good advice and De Botton showed to my surprise that Proust is full of genuinely helpful hints on how to live better. I bought How Proust Can Change Your Life because I was interested in Proust not because I wanted to change my life; the helpful hints are a fringe benefit.Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

To those who consider nostalgia beneficial, often need to defend it against its detractors who advocate the usefulness of being in the present moment. This book will provide a useful insight as to why it is worthwhile to persist in the search of lost time, for as Socrates claimed, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living!’

マルセル・プルーストに興味はあるが『失われた時を求めて』を読む気力はないという人にはおすすめ。人々が常日頃感じる疑問や問題、苦悩について、その解決案を、プルーストの作品や思想の中に見出そうとする一冊。文学にはなんの価値があるか、型にはまった表現がなぜ問題か、読書にはどこまで頼っていいかなど、その問題提起も興味深い。プルースト入門としてはもちろん、プルーストには全く関心がない人でも一つの読み物として楽しめるのではないだろうか。ただし英語は格調が高く文学的で、アカデミックな語学力を持たない人には少し厳しいかもしれない。

This is a wryly humorous book, written with tongue firmly in cheek. The author uses a ‘Self-Help’ layout to unveil both a short biography of Proust himself and to incorporate the writer’s thoughts to show us how to appreciate his work and life in general. There are chapters on how to Love Life, Read for Yourself, Take Your Time, Suffer Successfully, Express Your Emotions, Be a Good Friend, Open Your Eyes, Be Happy in Love and Put Books Down.Along the way we read of Proust’s meeting with James Joyce (sadly disappointing), his dislike of noise, his family, how to appreciate the ordinary things in life, his relationship with his mother, his ailments and the importance he placed on friendship. My knowledge of Proust is not great, but I look forward to reading his work and this was suggested to me as a good beginning. Indeed, if you are considering reading Proust’s work, this is a really good introduction to the man and his writing. Highly recommended and a wonderfully enjoyable read.

I have never read Proust and this is the first book I've read by Alain De Botton. I am now intrigued by Proust as it seems he had some interesting things to say about everyday life and the problems which beset us all. Falling in love, friendship and putting books down among other subjects are covered in this interesting little book.As well as receiving some useful life advice such as listening to your friends rather than insisting on telling them about yourself and your concerns; I formed a vivid picture of Proust himself. I liked the way he moved round the table when he held dinner parties so that each of his guests received his undivided attention for a time. Yes he was a hypochondriac and valetudinarian but he was also a good friend and has many useful things to say about friendship.It seems from reading this book that Proust's epic novel concentrates on everyday happenings as demonstrated by the famous madeleine incident. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about not taking your own views from famous authors but using them as jumping off points to establish what you yourself think. Read books but don't take them as absolute truths - think for yourself as well.I thought it was interesting that Virginia Woolf felt her own work was no good at all after reading Proust as she thought he had written the perfect novel and there was no point in anyone writing anything else. Overall this is an interesting book as it is a mixture of biographical information about Proust himself and a dissection of some of his writing. If you're wondering about reading Proust but are wary of dipping a toe in the water then this would be a good place to start.

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.