Alain de Botton is a Swiss-born British philosopher and novelist, best known for his essayistic works of philosophy.
Despite de Botton’s reputation as a philosopher and theorist, his debut book work was a novel entitled Essays in Love – to which a sequel, The Course of Love, was penned in 2016. de Botton’s first non-fiction book was 1997’s How Proust Can Change Your Life, a fusion of literary criticism and philosophy which became a cult success. This was followed three years later by The Consolations of Philosophy, a bestselling philosophical ‘self-help’ guide that applied the teachings of famous thinkers to modern life. Subsequent books centred on philosophical deconstructions of travel, architecture and status, as well as 2012’s Religion for Atheists, which defended the trappings of religion in a secular age. In 2008, de Botton founded The School of Life, an alternative university providing people with emotional intelligence skills aimed at practical results in the workplace. In September 2019, de Botton produced a book based on the establishment’s teachings.
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