Summary and Reviews of The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

Media Reviews

New York Times The Course of Love is a return to the form that made Mr. de Botton’s name in the mid-1990s…. love is the subject best suited to his obsessive aphorizing, and in this novel he again shows off his ability to pin our hopes, methods and insecurities to the page.

NPR - Heller McAlpin There's a possibly inadvertent but telling double-entendre in the title of Alain de Botton's new book .... [it] exposes the direction his work has taken — toward the ever more didactic. More of a case study than a novel, this is a course devised to teach readers how to navigate the pitfalls of romantic attachments.

People An engrossing tale [that] provides plenty of food for thought.

The Chicago Tribune There's no writer alive like de Botton, and his latest ambitious undertaking is as enlightening and humanizing as his previous works.

The Scotsman This is a wise book, and a delightful and witty one too. It makes you think and feel. You will learn something about yourself and about other people.

The Evening Standard (UK) Well-observed and imbued with a tenderness that feels authentic and uncynical. It may even save some marriages. My bet is that if de Botton’s name were taken off this book it would be fêted by the sort of people who are in thrall to Milan Kundera and Adam Thirlwell. He wants us to feel less alone — and that’s not such a bad thing.

The Guardian (UK) It should be clear by now that what propels us through the novel is not plot, but character, and De Botton’s meticulous examination of the emotions and behaviours that draw the couple together and nearly drive them apart ... Scattered throughout the narrative are italicised passages of essayistic contemplation on the nature of love, abstract reflections commenting on each new development, without mentioning the characters by name. These musings are clever, their tone a mixture of irony and sincerity ... If we eventually find ourselves skimming such sections, it’s less a critique of De Botton’s novel than a testament to his ability to so involve us in the fates of his endearing couple that we resent any interruptions, and hurry along to learn more about the love story that likely mirrors our own and that of so many others we know.

Booklist What is it like to be married for awhile? The answers are often funny but also quite moving, thought provoking, forgiving, and drenched in truth.

Kirkus Reviews More treatise than novel...A philosopher of the everyday can't help but write marriage as a primer.

Publishers Weekly The novel is a valuable commentary on the state of modern marriage and it reassures us that troubles are a normal, even necessary, part of the journey.