The Art of Travel - Hardcover

De Botton, Alain

3.83

24,042 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241140102 ISBN 13: 9780241140109

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2002

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Few things are as exciting as the idea of travelling somewhere far from home. So why are we so often dissatisfied with the reality of travel? In THE ART OF TRAVEL, Alain de Botton, takes us on a journey through the satisfactions and disappointments of travelling. Dealing - among other things - with airports, exotic carpets and hotel mini-bars, this humorous and thought-provoking book reveals the hidden motivations, expectations and complications of our voyages into the wide world.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The urge to be somewhere else is one of the abiding traits of human nature; in The Art of Travel author Alain de Botton (The Consolations of Philosophy, How Proust Can Change Your Life) sets out to discover why in his own inimitably witty and discursive way.

Of course, the proximate reasons we travel are many and various: as de Botton explains. Using the travel experiences of great writers and artists, like Van Gogh, Ruskin, Huysmans and Wordsworth (in Provence, Venice, Belgium and the Lake District respectively), de Botton shows that men will travel to see beautiful buildings, or climb beautiful mountains, or make love to beautiful (and comparatively amoral) women. But, using the same artists, de Botton also shows that there is an underlying theme to all travel: the urge for difference, for the rhapsody of change. That this is an urge more often disappointed than gratified only makes the condition more poignant. One of de Botton's best chapters, on Flaubert, amplifies this tragicomic point: the French novelist spent enervating years in genteel Normandy longing for the sensual splendours of Egypt, then, when he finally reached the pyramids, he promptly lapsed into maudlin nostalgia for rainy, bourgeois Rouen.

If there are flaws in this, de Botton's latest and perhaps most readable book, they are the usual suspects: just occasionally the author comes across as a bit long-winded and self-regarding. However, this is such a pleasant and effortless read even these flaws can be taken as endearing characteristics--like the lizards who kip in the bath in your otherwise idyllic holiday villa.--Sean Thomas

Review:

'Lucid, fluid, uplifting' Sunday Times

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.