Alain de Botton, (born 20 December 1969 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a writer. December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Location within Switzerland   Zürich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...

He is the only son of Gilbert de Botton, who was a financier (who founded Global Asset Management) and art collector, and his first wife, Jacqueline Burgauer.[1] Alain spent the first 12 years of his life in Switzerland, where he learned to speak French and German. Financier (IPA: /ˌfi nãn ˈsjei/) is an elegant term for a person who handles large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. ...

Education

His family later moved to London, where he learned English. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ...

He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Harrow School in London. He took a double starred first in history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1988-90), and completed his masters degree in philosophy at King's College London (1991-92).[2] Dragon School logo School House at the Dragon School, on Bardwell Road. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Harrow School, normally just known as Harrow, is one of the worlds most famous schools. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees (bachelors degrees and some masters degrees) in the United Kingdom. ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348, refounded 1557 Sister College(s) Brasenose College Master Sir Christopher Hum Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Postgraduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, generally known... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... Kings College London is the largest college of the University of London and one of a number of university institutions founded in England in the early 19th century. ...

He began a Ph.D in French philosophy at Harvard, but gave up research to write fiction. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in French language, has been extremely diverse, and influential to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from René Descartes through Voltaire and Henri Bergson to 20th century Existentialism and Post-structuralism. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Writing

Books

De Botton has written essayistic books, which refer both to his own experiences and ideas - and those of artists, philosophers, and thinkers. It is a style of writing that has been referred to as a 'philosophy of everyday life.'[3][4] His books are published in 20 languages.

In 1993, his first novel, Essays In Love (titled On Love in the US), was published to critical acclaim^{[citation needed]}. It analysed the process of falling in and out of love. The style of the book was unusual, because it mixed elements of a novel together with reflections and analyses normally found in a piece of non-fiction. 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

He didn't, however, receive world-wide recognition until after the publication of his first non-fiction work, How Proust Can Change Your Life, in 1997.[5] The book was based on the life and works of Marcel Proust. It is a mixture of an ironic 'self-help' envelope and an analysis of one of the most revered but unread books in the Western canon. It was a bestseller in the US and UK.[6] 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Proust redirects here. ...

It was followed by The Consolations of Philosophy. Though sometimes described as works of popularisation,[7] these two books were attempts to develop original ideas (about, for example, friendship, art, envy, desire, and inadequacy) with the help of thoughts of other thinkers^{[citation needed]}. The title of this book is a reference to Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, in which philosophy appears as an allegorical figure to Boethius to offer him consolation before he faces his impending execution. In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes, such as unpopularity, feelings of inadequacy, financial worries, broken hearts, and the general problem of suffering. The book has been both praised and criticised for its therapeutic approach to philosophy. Boethius teaching his students (initial from a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation of Philosophy) Boethius redirects here. ... This early printed book has many hand-painted illustrations depicting Lady Philosophy and scenes of daily life in fifteenth-century Ghent (1485) Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius written in about the year 524 AD. It has been described as the single most important... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than (and in addition to) the literal. ... Roman marble bust of Epicurus Epicurus (Epikouros or in Greek) (341 BC, Samos – 270 BC, Athens) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of Epicureanism, one of the most popular schools of thought in Hellenistic Philosophy. ... Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 - September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher born in Gdańsk (Danzig), Poland. ... Seneca may refer to: Roman figures (any links to Seneca in Roman pages should be relinked to one of these two) Marcus (or Lucius) Annaeus Seneca also called rhetor, Roman orator and father of Seneca the philosopher and dramatist. ... Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης, invariably anglicized as , SÇ’cratÄ“s; 470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who is widely credited for laying the foundation for Western philosophy. ...

De Botton then returned to a more lyrical, personal style of writing. In The Art of Travel, he looked at themes in the psychology of travel: how we imagine places before we see them, how we remember beautiful things, what happens to us when we look at deserts, or stay in hotels, or go to the countryside.

In Status Anxiety, he examined an almost universal anxiety that is rarely mentioned directly: the anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser.

De Botton's latest book, The Architecture of Happiness, discusses beauty and ugliness in architecture. The Architecture of Happiness is a book by Alain de Botton that discusses the importance of beauty, published by Pantheon Books in 2006. ...

Columns & Lectures

He writes regular columns for several English newspapers, including The Independent (on Sundays). He also travels extensively to lecture on his works. The Independent is a British compact newspaper published by Tony OReillys Independent News & Media. ...

Production company

De Botton owns and helps run his own production company, Seneca Productions, which regularly broadcasts television documentaries based on his works.[8] Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of a film or television program. ...

Teaching

He is Director of the Graduate Philosophy Program at London University. Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the universitys central administration offices and its library The University of London, founded in 1836, is a federation of colleges which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ...

Personal life

His family originates from the from a small Castilian town of Boton (now vanished) on the Spanish peninsula. They left in 1492, along with the rest of the Sephardic Jewish community, and eventually settled in Alexandria, Egypt, where de Botton's father was born.[9] Castilian is a noun and adjective that refers to the region and former kingdom of Spain; in particular, it refers to the language of this region, and is therefore considered by many to be a synonym of Spanish, though with different nuances. ... 1492 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sephardi Jews (ספרדי, Standard Hebrew Səfardi, Tiberian Hebrew ardî; plural Sephardim: ספרדים, Standard Hebrew Sfaradim, Tiberian Hebrew ) are a subgroup of Jews, generally defined in contrast to Ashkenazi Jews and/or Mizrahi Jews. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport For other uses, see Alexandria (disambiguation). ...

He has one sister, Miel, who is a psychologist in Paris.

He currently lives in Hammersmith, West London, with his wife Charlotte, whom he married in 2003, and their sons Samuel and Saul. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Complete works

• Essays In Love (1993)
• The Romantic Movement (1994)
• Kiss and Tell (1995)
• How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997)
• The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)
• The Art of Travel (2002)
• Status Anxiety (2004)
• The Architecture of Happiness (2006)

Status Anxiety (ISBN 0375420835) is a book by Alain de Botton, released in 2004. ...

Television series

• How Proust Can Change Your Life
• Philosophy: A Guide To Happiness (from "The Consolations of Philosophy")
• The Art of Travel
• Status Anxiety
• The Perfect Home (from The Architecture of Happiness)

Reviews

"If you had to extract A Good Idea from Alain de Botton, it would be that literature and philosophy can offer ordinary people a richer, more complete understanding of their own experience. This has not been a fashionable line for a long time, which helps to account for the freshness of How Proust Can Change Your Life" - Robert Hanks, The Independent (3/4/2000)

"There's an easy charm to de Botton's writing, pleasure to be had in its intellectual-order and civilised tidiness." - Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard (13/5/2002)

"All de Botton's books, fiction and non- fiction, deal with how thought and specifically philosophy might help us deal better with the challenges of quotidian life -- returning philosophy to its simple, sound origins." - Annette Kobak, Times Literary Supplement (31/5/2002)

"How could such simplistic crackwash be construed as useful, let alone life-changing?" - Simone de Wittgenotle, The Onion (13/3/06)

External links

• Alain de Botton official site
• Profile at Contemporary Writers
• Review of "The Consolations of Philosophy"
• Review of "The Consolations of Philosophy"
• Archived web chat
• Interview with 3AM Magazine
• Alain de Botton: "Walking down a crowded road as catalyst for fascinating thoughts"