For anyone who ever wondered what Marcel Proust had in mind when he
wrote the one-and-a-quarter-million words of In Search of Lost Time
(while bedridden no less), Alain de Botton has the answer. For, in this
stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply
into Proust's life and work - his fiction, letter, and conversations -
and distils from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually
helpful. Here, tendered in prose almost as luminous as it's subject?s,
is advice on cultivating friendships, suffering successfully,
recognising love and understanding why you should never sleep with
someone on the first date. And here, too, is a generously perceptive
literary biography that suggests that the master is as relevant today as
he was in fin de si?cle Paris.
