The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
by Alain De Botton
List Price:
Our Price: $7.94
You Save: $18.06 (69%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Alain De BottonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 037542444X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Book Review: The pleasures of work spotting
Summary: 4 Stars
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Unlike most people's daily jobs, reading through The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work proved to be a consistently fun activity. Alaine de Botton is an A-list writer with a talent for noticing and elevating features of everyday life that others would dismiss as merely mundane.
He (or his editors) made an ingenious selection of industries and occupations to cover in this volume, which is organized like a travel account. De Botton moves from watching cargo ships in a London harbor to observing logistics operations, which in turn stimulates him to travel to the Maldives to trace the path of the tunas that end up on English dinner tables. Subsequently he visits an English biscuit factory, drops in on a career counselor, journeys to French Guiana to watch a satellite launch, lingers with an English artist, takes a long hike with an electrical transmission engineer, calls on the London headquarters of the world's largest accounting firm, stays in London to attend a trade show for entrepreneurs seeking investors, and then ventures to Paris for a major international exhibition for the aerospace industry. He concludes in Mojave, California in a graveyard for obsolete airliners. At each stop he drolly records myriad details about the work activities, products, and services of those he encounters.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is only tangentially about what the title suggests (more to be said about this below). More directly, it is about the specialization of labor, the production of superfluous goods, our removal from the sources of what we consume, the detachment of meaning from work, and the elusiveness of self-fulfillment. These are well-worn themes, but de Botton treats each entertainingly.
The division of labor was the key that unlocked material fecundity and de Botton marvels at the diversity of specialized occupations that must interlock harmoniously to, for example, conceptualize, test, produce, package, market, and deliver an English biscuit. Yet he laments that our civilization is "inclined to accrue its wealth through the sale of some astonishingly small and only distantly meaningful things" and he believes that we are "torn and unable sensibly to adjudicate between the worthwhile ends which money might be put and the often morally trivial and destructive mechanisms of its generation." He wonders, for instance, about the "unintended side effects" of a long career at United Biscuits, about the meaningfulness of the lives that result. He allows, however, that meaning may inhere in the aggregate across specializations, suggesting that it is not just doctors, nuns, artists, and the like who serve the collective good, that "making a perfectly formed stripey chocolate circle which helps fill an impatient stomach" may serve as well.
De Botton reaches the somewhat surprising (or ironic) conclusion that one proven value of work is that it distracts us from competing aspects of life which we might otherwise dwell upon. Work, he writes, "will have provided a perfect bubble in which to invest our hopes for perfection, it will have focused our immeasurable anxieties on a few relatively small-scale and achievable goals, it will have given us a sense of mastery, it will have made us respectably tired, it will have put food on the table. It will have kept us out of greater trouble." It is not merely incidental that he comments on sexual sublimation in several of the business settings he visits.
The writing is full of clever comparisons and turns of phrase. The Airbus that ferries the tuna, for instance, is compared to the fish itself; it has "gill-like air inlet flaps near its wheels and fins along its fuselage" (one is reminded of the tuna again when de Botton declares that the airliners he encounters in the Mojave graveyard were "gutted and filleted"). He takes away from his time with the career counselor the thought that for most of us our achievements will fall short of our promise, that "on either side of the summits of greatness are arrayed the endless foothills populated by the tortured celibates of achievement." The business plans of the entrepreneurs represent a "subgenre of contemporary fiction," he suggests.
Almost half the pages in the book hold black and white photographs taken by Richard Baker (many more, in color, appear on de Botton's web site). It is a credit to both the writer and the photographer that the prints generally support and complement the images conjured by the author's words.
My biggest disappointment in this book is that we hear very little (and not in their own words) about whether his subjects take pleasure or sorrow in their work, in what mix, and why. Pleasure and sorrow are subjective feelings, after all, and without such testimony any claim de Botton may make to an understanding of the inner lives of his workers lacks credibility. How is he able to tell us, for instance, that the accountants he met have no desire for a lasting legacy, that they have "made their peace with oblivion"? Did he ask?
There are other grounds on which one might quibble. For instance, de Botton often injects light ridicule. It can be humorous when the objects are places (Mojave, for instance, is "like many small towns in the American west, it seemed to not have a centre where citizens could gather for fellowship, javelin contests and philosophical debate"). But when the object is another person, as it sometimes is, the tendency is more distasteful. To be fair, de Botton is often mildly self-mocking as well.
De Botton writes that he was inspired to write this book by five cargo ship spotters he met on a pier, men who know an impressive amount of facts about the vessels they see and who are sufficiently curious and diligent to investigate and discover what they do not already know. It must have been apparent to him that these were men enjoying their leisure, not their work, although he doesn't say this. Nevertheless, I am pleased that he followed through on his inspiration and that I had the leisure to read such delightful accounts about others' work.
Summary of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
From the international bestselling author of The Architecture of Happiness and How Proust Can Change Your Life comes this lyrical, erudite look at our world of work.We spend most of our time at work, but what we do there rarely gets discussed in the sort of lyrical and descriptive prose our efforts surely deserve. Determined to correct this lapse, armed with a poetic perspective and his trademark philosophical sharpness, Alain de Botton heads out into the world of offices and factories, ready to take in the beauty, interest, and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace.
De Botton spends time in and around some less familiar work environments, including warehouses, container ports, rocket launch pads, and power stations, and follows scientists, landscape painters, accountants, cookie manufacturers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and aircraft salesmen as they do their jobs.
Along the way, de Botton tries to answer some of the most urgent questions we can pose about work: Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? What is its meaning? To what end do we daily exhaust not only ourselves but also our planet?
Equally intrigued by work?s pleasures and its pains, Alain de Botton offers a characteristically lucid and witty tour of the working day and night, in a book sure to inspire a range of life-changing and wise thoughts.
Book Description
We spend most of our waking lives at work?in occupations often chosen by our unthinking younger selves. And yet we rarely ask ourselves how we got there or what our occupations mean to us.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is an exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people wake up to do each day?and night?to make the frenzied contemporary world function. With a philosophical eye and his signature combination of wit and wisdom, Alain de Botton leads us on a journey around a deliberately eclectic range of occupations, from rocket science to biscuit manufacture, accountancy to art?in search of what make jobs either fulfilling or soul-destroying.
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 a book that shines a revealing light on the essential meaning of work in our lives.
Alain de Botton on The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
I wrote The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work to shine a spotlight on the working world. I wanted to write a book that would open our eyes to the beauty and occasional horror of the working world?and I did this by looking at 10 different industries, a deliberately eclectic range from accountancy to engineering, from biscuit manufacture to logistics.The strangest thing about the world of work is the widespread expectation that our work should make us happy. For thousands of years, work was viewed as something to be done with as rapidly as possible and escaped in the imagination through alcohol or religion. Aristotle was the first of many philosophers to state that no one could be both free and obliged to earn a living. A more optimistic assessment of work had to wait until the eighteenth century and men like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin, who for the first time argued that one's working life could be at the centre of any desire for happiness. It was during this century that our modern ideas about work were formed?at the very same time as our modern ideas about love and marriage took shape.
In the pre-modern age, it was assumed that no one could try to be in love and married: marriage was something one did for purely commercial reasons. Things were going well if you maintained a tepid friendship with your spouse. Meanwhile, love was something you did with your mistress, with pleasure untied to the responsibilities of child-rearing. Yet the new philosophers of love argued that one might actually aim to marry the person one was in love with rather than just have an affair. To this unusual idea was added the even more peculiar notion that one might work both for money and to realise one's dreams, an idea that replaced the previous assumption that the day job took care of the rent and anything more ambitious had to happen in one's spare time.
We are the heirs of these two very ambitious beliefs: that you can be in love and married, and in a job and having a good time. It has become as impossible for us to think that you could be out of work and happy as it had once seemed impossible for Aristotle to think that you could be employed and human. Thus is born The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. ?Alain de Botton
(Photo © Roderick Field)
Workplace Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Workplace Books
The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are In Jeopardy And What Can Be Done About Itby Jody Heymann
Basic Books; Published: 2000-01-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.97
Price in other shops:
Embracing Victory: How Women Can Compete Joyously, Compassionately, and Successfully in the Workplace and on the Playing Fieldby Mariah Burton Nelson
Avon Books (P); Published: 1999-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.20
Price in other shops:
Bonjour Laziness: Jumping Off the Corporate Ladderby Corinne Maier
Pantheon; Published: 2005-05-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.69
Price in other shops:
The Boss (Black Lace)by Monica Belle
Black Lace; Published: 2010-04-22; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.47
Price in other shops:
Neanderthals at Workby Albert J. Bernstein
Ballantine Books; Published: 1996-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $43.78
Introduction to Fraud in the Workplaceby Chad O. Albrecht, W. Steve Albrecht
Thomson Custom Publishing; Published: 2002; Paperback; Book
Robotics Primer: The What, Why and How of Robots in the Workplaceby Robert A. Ullrich
Robotic Industries Assn; Published: 1983-06; Paperback; Book
Beat Your Goals: The Definitive Guide to Personal Success (Colour Guides)by David Molden, Denise Parker
Financial Times Management; Published: 2002-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $44.11
Transforming Culture: Creating and Sustaining a Better Manufacturing Organizationby Elizabeth K. Briody, Robert T. Trotter, Tracy L. Meerwarth
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2010-03-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $68.99
Price in other shops:
Workplace Resources, Building Communication Skills: Strategic Skill Buildersby Larry Mikulecky
Prentice Hall Trade; Published: 1990-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
How Proust Can Change Your Lifeby Alain De Botton
Pantheon; Published: 1997-04-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops:
The Art of Travelby Alain de Botton
Pantheon; Published: 2002-07-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.82
Price in other shops:
A Week at the Airport (Vintage International Original)by Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 2010-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.26
Price in other shops:
The Architecture of Happinessby Alain De Botton
Pantheon; Published: 2006-10-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $66.90
Status Anxietyby Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 2005-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Status Anxietyby Alain de Botton
Pantheon; Published: 2004-05-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)by Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 2008-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
The Consolations of Philosophyby Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 2001-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.35
Price in other shops:
The Art of Travelby Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 2004-05-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
How Proust Can Change Your Lifeby Alain De Botton
Vintage; Published: 1998-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops: