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Summary: One of the best contemporary books written "on love".
Review: de Botton's 1993 novel, On Love, is at once engrossing, thought-provoking and ultimately fulfilling. He skillfully blends an appropriate mixture of humor and sentiment into a story that could easily have become maudlin and trite. The questions that he ponders and the insights that he ascertains regarding this ever-elusive subject are extraordinary -- perhaps almost too real at times. Interestingly, a large part of the novel is written in the first-person narrative, with only a few pages devoted to actual dialogue among the players. Still, de Botton keeps his readers intimately involved with the story, while at the same time gracefully teaching many basic concepts of social philosophy. Perhaps the only criticism might lie in the excerpt and brief description on the book's back, which hardly does the story justice. A marvelously written tale which concludes as beautifully as it began, this book is most recommended if not for its refreshing and original take "on love", but for its attempt (a successful one, in this reader's opinion) to grasp this metaphorical goal that all of us hope one day to attain.
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Summary: You'll read it again and again and again....
Review: This is like an intelligent "Bridget Jones Diary" written from the male perspective. I bought this book on a whim (judged by it's cover)in February of 1996 and since then I've probably re-read it five or six times and loaned it out to dozens of girlfriends. With humor and intellect the book describes all the facets of love and the joy and pain being in love brings. If you have ever been in a passionate yet failed romance this book will bring some strong flashbacks. Even though that might not be highly desirable unless you're hopelessly nostalgic like me, it makes you realize that insightful and sensitive men go through much of what women go through during the evolution of a relationship. And that I found immensely comforting. I have all of Alain de Botton's works and I savor each and every one of them. To me he is pure genius.
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Summary: Clever and fun
Review: How can a love story go together with philosophy? Or how can a youngman, who thoroughly studied philosophy, fall deeply in love, without thinking too much and asking himself too many questions?The beginning of the story happens in the sky, in a British Airways flight. And after that, as it happens in every love story, both protagonists come down to earth. And this is the moment when everything starts. The story of this novel is simplicity itself: a love affair, from its very beginning to its very end. De Botton's narrator describes falling in love with Chloe, being in love with her, and then getting over her, actually a quite banal thing. But what makes the book interesting and captivating is the way he manages to show everyday love in characters who are not particularly appealing, considering all aspects of love, especially the everyday and trivial. According to Alain de Botton, there are two ways to understand love: a mystical one, or at least mythical, and a philosophical one. This book takes both ways seriously and banters them gracefully. On one hand we have signs, destiny, romantic fatalism, Cupid and on the other we have Plato and Kant. I am sure that many of you will recognize themselves in the stories the author tells and will admit that he or she said or did the same things when was in love. I also have to say that Alain de Botton is prone to think too much sometimes and makes big deal out of small things, philosophizes a lot.
And so I found the story difficult to follow at times, which prevented me from fully enjoying the narrative. Despite this, this little book is very clever, written with a lot of common sense, nerve and surprises (the story is full of drawings, charts and diagrams) and it can be read by the ones who are cheated or dissapointed by a love story. It is well written and fun to be read. It is something that will remind you that some things should not be always taken too seriously.
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Summary: The best was the first
Review: Alain de Botton really got famous around the time of How Proust can change your life and he's cemented his reptuation with his new book The Consolations of Philosophy. Both of them are great, but recently, I found this book, his first one, and I was completely, I mean, completely blown away. If you've read and in any way enjoyed de botton's past books, I think you'll love this one. It's got all the strengths of his writing; the analysis, the humour, the clarity, the elegance. But it's also got passion, it feels like you're reading the private thought of a man in love (in a good way). It taught me so much about myself, it reminded me of things I'd felt, but perhaps never been able to express. It made me feel a sense of community; like when you put down a book and think, 'Hey, I'm not all alone, there's someone out there who thinks like me.' It REALLY annoys me that the way publishing works, the best books sometimes never get promoted. Why were there ads all over the New York Times for de Botton's Consolations of Philosophy, but nothing for this one. This book was published in 1993 and sank without trace. It's published by Grove Atlantic, when actually, it's the kind of book that deserves to outsell Nick Hornby. I hear in Britain de Botton is really really well known; and I guess that's the way it should be. Anyways, On Love is a terrific read. To my mind, BETTER than his last two books; much better and fresher and more heartfelt. Go for it.
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Summary: Sensationally incisive and thoroughly entertaining.
Review: De Botton's first book manages simultaneously to be important and entertaining. Through the first-person narrative, de Botton succinctly and insightfully dissects the nature of a romantic relationship. Sophisticated enough in its pontifications not to be trite, On Love is also spiced with enough humor that it does not plunge into a tired and dry treatise on love. In drawing from classical thinkers as well as providing diagrams for the reader, de Botton manages both further to illustrate the points he is making and to satirize the soberness of the sources and mechanisms that he uses to advance and refine his narrator's observations. This book can be a comfort that we are not alone in the psychoses that love breeds. At the same time, the book can help us raise our awareness as to the sources of these psychoses. Equally rewarding to plow through in three hours at the beach or to carefully dissect with a hi-liter over a course of months.
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Summary: Just brilliant; as tasty as your favorite dessert
Review: Who says you can't judge a book by its cover? I was paying for a bookstore purchase one day in NYC and the cover of this book, on a rack near the cash register, called out to me. I bought it and it sat around for a few months. One day I picked it up and read it. I was transfixed, by the playfulness and wit of the writing and by the deep work the intellectually curious main character goes through in his attempts to understand the woman he's fallen in love with. He's never entirely sure where the object of his love, Chloie, is coming from, and spends much time analyzing the situation from every imaginable angle, sharing it all with us, the readers. I loved this, the idea that a man wrote this book about a man who is as perplexed as a woman is when she's on the precipice of a love affair with a guy she can't fathom. This book was as comforting as chocolate, and as delicious, a heady banquet for the romantic soul. As I read the book, I was wishing I knew the author, because he's on the same wavelength as me. I can't wait to check out his other books!
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Summary: One of the Greatest Books Ever
Review: Absolutely hilarious! His analogies are superb and he captures what it is like to be single through the full stages of a relationship, start to the inevitable breakup. YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK!
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Summary: unbelievable insight
Review: Alain de Boton's debut novel is by far and away one of the most perceptive books I've ever read. Although de Boton is trained as a philosopher, he fuses his observations concerning relationships with an engaging plotline.
The plotline isn't what makes the book, however. Instead, it's his perceptive and uncanny insight into each stage of the relationship, from its inception to its demise. And while it is obviously related to one relationship in particular, his ability to universalize the romantic experience is one of the biggest strengths of the novel. For example, he argues that "most people would throw away their cynicism, if they could; the majority just never have the chance." I read this book with a highlighter and so did most of my friends. And I don't even highlight the books I"m supposed to read for school. If any book is a must read, it's this one. Everyone who wants a relationship, is in a relationship or who has ever had a relationship should read this book.
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Summary: A Brillant Debut...
Review: I stumbled across De Botton's book years ago in book store, but didn't have the patience to read it (ugh, I didn't like philosophy in college, why read it again?). A friend recommended How Proust Can Change your Life to me a few years back, but I forgot about that too. Then, reading Joe Epstein's Snobbery (which is filled with Proust quotes), I ventured out and started my de Botton education with On Love. What a tour de force. I found myself laughing and cringing in acknowledgement of the universality of the situations. As one who deconstructs love much like our nameless hero (although without the classical references, I tend to use TV as source material), I found this book refreshing and honest. He realizes in the end, that falling in love is indeed folly, but the kind of folly that makes heroes. Read this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring...this is more philosophical commentary than a novel.
Review: I would recommend this book to people who enjoy studying philosophy or for people who have more than a basic knowledge of kant, marx, plato...as a reader who is neither, i found myself bored with de botton's long, dry and tedious rantings. He did have a few interesting points though....worth a star or two
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