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The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
  • Published: 30 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141932750
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work




A lyrical and illuminating journey through our working days and nights

We spend most of our waking lives at work - in occupations often chosen by our unthinking sixteen-year-old selves. And yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what it might mean for us.

Equally intrigued by work's pleasures and its pains, Alain de Botton here heads out into the under-charted worlds of the office, the factory, the fishing fleet and the logistics centre, ears and eyes open to the beauty, interest and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace. Along the way he tries to answer some of the most urgent questions we can ask about work: Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning? And why do we daily exhaust not only ourselves but also the planet?

Characteristically lucid, witty and inventive, Alain de Botton's 'song for occupations' is a celebration and exploration of an aspect of life which is all too often ignored and yet as central to us as our love lives.

  • Published: 30 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141932750
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

About the author

Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a 'philosophy of everyday life.' He's written on love, travel, architecture and literature. His books have been bestsellers in 30 countries.

 

Alain also started and helps to run a school in London called The School of Life, dedicated to a new vision of education. 

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Praise for The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Clever, provocative and fresh as a daisy

Literary Review on The Architecture of Happiness

Full of splendid ideas, often happily and beautifully expressed . . . an engaging and intelligent book

Independent on The Architecture of Happiness