Alain de Botton's On Love | Generated by AI
Question: Could you please introduce the book related to The School of Life’s founder Alain de Botton that is mentioned in Chinese as “爱上浪漫” (the book the user read before discovering he founded the channel), using English only?
Answer:
The book you are referring to is On Love (originally published in 1993 as Essays in Love in the UK, and later retitled On Love in many editions), written by the British-Swiss philosopher and author Alain de Botton.
It is Alain de Botton’s debut novel and one of his most beloved works. Written when he was only 23, the book tells the story of a romantic relationship between a young man and a woman he meets on a flight from Paris to London. The narrative combines a tender, witty love story with deep philosophical reflections on the nature of love, attachment, jealousy, idealism, heartbreak, and emotional growth.
What makes On Love unique is its blend of fiction and philosophy: the story is interspersed with numbered philosophical asides, diagrams, and reflections that analyze the protagonist’s feelings in real time, drawing on thinkers such as Plato, Freud, Proust, and Marx (yes, even Marx on love!). Many readers describe it as both a heartbreakingly accurate portrayal of falling in and out of love and a profound education on how romantic love actually works.
The book became the philosophical seed that eventually grew into The School of Life, the organization Alain de Botton co-founded in 2008. Almost all of the core ideas you hear in The School of Life’s videos about relationships—love as a skill rather than a feeling, the importance of emotional education, the dangers of idealization, the need for kindness and “teaching” in love—can be traced directly back to On Love.
If you or your friends have ever felt confused, hurt, or enlightened by modern relationships, this book is widely considered one of the most insightful and comforting companions. It teaches, just as you mentioned from the video, that love at its best is a mutual education in which both partners become better teachers and better students of each other.
Highly recommended for anyone struggling with intimate or family relationships—it has helped millions understand that their pain is normal, their longing is universal, and that becoming wiser in love is possible.
Common English editions:
- On Love (US and recent international editions)
- Essays in Love (original UK title, still used in some countries)
Both are the same book.