If you’ve seen Little Miss Sunshine, The Life Aquatic, or the Monty Python sketch “All England Summarize Proust Competition", you know: Proust is part of popular culture, whether or not he would’ve liked that. A mix of literary biography and witty self-help, de Botton applies facts from Proust’s life as well as clues from his lyrical memoir, “In Search of Lost Time” to express the writer’s life-long occupation with how to best appreciate life. How to read for onself, how to notice the richness of life, and with humor, how to suffer successfully. In all, an intellectual guide to living to the fullest.

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