Written as an antidote to the fear of reading In Search of Lost Time, this book explores the many themes that emerge from Proust’s monumental novel. How to suffer successfully, how to be a good friend, how to be happy in love, and even how to put books down are just a few of the lessons it draws from Proust’s work. Blending Proust’s ideas with his own reflections, Alain de Botton offers a witty and accessible guide to navigating In Search, helping the reader appreciate its richness without feeling overwhelmed. I’ve always enjoyed Alain de Botton’s writing – it consistently makes me laugh – and his ability to extract so many themes from Proust with such humor is genuinely impressive. A very good companion for a year spent reading In Search of Lost Time.
“The problem was more universal, it was inherent within the idea of friendship and would have been present even if he had had a chance to share his thoughts with the most profound minds of his generation, even if he had, for instance, been given the opportunity to converse with a writer of James Joyce’s genius.
Which in fact he did. In 1922, both writers were at a black-tie dinner given at the Ritz for Stravinsky, Diaghilev and members of the Russian Ballet, in order to celebrate the first night of Stravinsky’s Le Renard. Joyce arrived late and without a dinner jacket, Proust kept his fur coat on throughout the evening and what happened once they were introduced was later reported by Joyce to a friend :
Our talk consisted solely of the word ‘Non.’ Proust asked me if I knew the duc de so-and-so. I said, ‘Non.’ Our hostess asked Proust if he had read such and such a piece of Ulysses. Proust said, ‘Non.’ And so on.
After dinner, Proust got into his taxi with his hosts, Violet and Sydney Schiff, and without asking, Joyce followed them in. His first gesture was to open the window and his second I20 How to Be a Good Friend to light a cigarette, both of which were life-threatening acts as far as Proust was concerned. During the journey, Joyce watched Proust without saying a word, while Proust talked continuously and failed to address a word to Joyce. When they arrived at Proust’s flat at the Rue Hamelin, Proust took Sydney Schiff aside and said: ‘Please ask Monsieur Joyce to let my taxi drive him home.’ The taxi did so. The two men were never to meet again.”
Read and listened to as an audiobook