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 wise and utterly original book. Don’t leave home without it.

几乎没有一个角落能够躲避新闻的不断轰炸， 新闻的喧嚣纷杂已经渗入自我当中， 但我们很少意识到新闻强大的影响力： 新闻不仅能左右我们对现实的观感，还能塑造我们的心灵状态！ 一场饥荒、一座遭到洪水淹没的城镇、一则明星八卦、一个政府的垮台、一位经济学家对于明年发展趋势的预测......这类外在的骚动，很有可能就是我们获得内心平静所需要的东西。一场饥荒，一座洪水淹没的小镇，一个在逃的连环杀手，一届下台的政府，某经济学家对明年救济人口的预测--这样的外界骚动也许正是我们所需要的，好以此换取内心的平静。 当新闻支配了我们的日常生活，需要有人帮助我们去回应和思索新闻造成的影响：包括心中因此出现的羡慕与恐慌、激动与受挫，以及裹挟在不断向我们涌来的新闻大潮中，偶尔会怀疑自己如果不知道是否会比较好的种种情境。 全球著名的才子型作家德波顿由此出发，解析六大类型的新闻报导——政治新闻、国际新闻、经济新闻、名人新闻、灾难新闻、消费新闻，用他的生花妙笔与透彻观察，引导我们产生适当的观点，使我们体会到──与新闻报导的暗示恰恰相反──其实没有什么事情真正算得上是新奇、值得讶异，或者恐怖至极。

这是一部逼使理性与感性、细腻生动的恋爱过程全记录。 其间，才子德波顿细述一段情缘中的邂逅、迷恋、平凡中的幸福、熟悉后的倦怠、女友移情别恋、挽回无望、自杀、醒悟，以至一段情完全成为过去。他认真思辩自己的感觉，忠实记下与女友交往中的各个细节，特别是心理和哲学层面的思考，文字生动、处处机锋，不仅有极大的阅读乐趣，阅毕更令人回味无穷。 来吧，想爱、正在爱、曾经爱过的读者诸君，来看看“我”谈的那场恋爱是怎么回事。 英伦才子阿兰·德波顿，一位不乏米兰·昆德拉的批评深度，深具罗兰·巴特尔的解构气质；但，比昆德拉有更立体的爱情思维，比巴特尔更熨贴恋人的爱情神经，激活人们全新的阅读体验。 本书是一部融合理性与感性，细腻生动的恋爱过程的全记录。忠实记下与女友交往中的各个细节，特别是心理和哲学层面的思考 ，文字生动，处处机锋，不仅有极大的阅读乐趣，阅毕更令人回味无穷。

The best-selling author of How Proust Can Change Your Life and The Art of Travel revisits his utterly charming debut novel, On Love. The narrator is smitten by Chloe on a Paris–London flight, and by the time they’ve reached the luggage carousel he knows he is in love. He loves her chestnut hair, watery green eyes, the gap that makes her teeth Kantian and not Platonic, and her views on Heidegger’s Being and Time — but he hates her taste in shoes. Plotting the course of their affair from the initial delirium of infatuation to the depths of suicidal despair, through a fit of anhedonia — defined in medical texts as a disease resulting from the terror brought on by the threat of utter happiness — and finally through the terrorist tactics employed when the beloved begins, inexplicably, to drift away, On Love is filled with profound observations and useful diagrams, examining for all of us the pain and exhilaration of love.

From Publishers Weekly Using drawings, quizzes and quotes from famous philosphers, de Botton presents a postmodern look at the ups and downs of a love affair. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review "The Romantic Movement sheds light on the nature of relationships . . . The method of telling much and showing little produces a good deal of wit, cogency, and humor."--John Updike, The New Yorker "A reader gets whiffs of Donald Barthelme, Julian Barnes, Woody Allen, the films of Eric Rohmer . . . Mr. de Botton borrows exuberantly, and well, from his forebears . . . therein lies the buoyant charm of the approach."--Lisa Zeidner, The New York Times Book Review Review "The Romantic Movement sheds light on the nature of relationships . . . The method of telling much and showing little produces a good deal of wit, cogency, and humor."--John Updike, The New Yorker "A reader gets whiffs of Donald Barthelme, Julian Barnes, Woody Allen, the films of Eric Rohmer . . . Mr. de Botton borrows exuberantly, and well, from his forebears . . . therein lies the buoyant charm of the approach."--Lisa Zeidner, The New York Times Book Review Product Description In The Romantic Movement, Alain de Botton explores the progress of a love affair from first meeting to breaking up, intercut with musings on the nature of art of love. The relationship between Alice, an advertising executive, and Eric, a banker, is examined at every stage, supplemented by quizzes and line drawings by the author and commentary by a chorus of great philosophers, from Descartes to Plato to Aretha Franklin. The Romantic Movement will charm readers and lovers alike with wit, insight, and intelligence.

《爱上浪漫》是阿兰•德波顿继《爱情笔记》后发表的第二部小说，写的是一个名叫艾丽丝的英国姑娘的一段爱情经历，情节围绕她同男友埃里克相识、相爱直至最后分手而展开。与通常的爱情小说不同的是，作者在讲述故事的同时，还以哲学、心理学的观点对女主人公的想法和做法、对她和男友生活中出现的各种问题进行深入的分析。书中提出了一系列有趣的问题，例如“你怎样才能了解对方？”、“爱情、性和血拼有什么关系？”、“你让我成为怎样的人？” 等等。在《爱上浪漫》中，作者扮演的既是故事的讲述者，又是心理医生。德波顿引用了经典著作中的人物或情节，用极其生动的语言把一些相当深刻的道理解释清楚。他从哲学的角度对存在于人的感情生活中的一些古老的问题进行探讨，帮助恋爱中的男女更好地了解自己，了解对方。因此，德波顿的作品是一种特别的混合作，既是小说，又是哲学的想象，书中既有妙趣横生的描写，又有深入细致的分析。为了把问题说透，作者在本书中也插入了各种图表、公式、地图。不妨认为，这部小说可以比作是一部爱情指南，它可以用来帮助青年男女识破恋爱中的谎言，辨明真相，从而少犯一些愚蠢的错误。