英倫纔子德波頓風流纔子，英俊作傢，書生意氣，雄姿英發。他通曉英、法、德、西、拉丁數種語言，深得歐洲人文傳統之精髓他喜歡讀普魯斯特、濛田、蘇格拉底，同樣喜歡旅遊、購物和談情說愛他左手小說，右手散文，在文學、藝術、哲學、評論中自由進退、恣意穿插他的小說思想豐瞻、纔情縱橫，他的散文和評論又意象豐沛、妙筆生花他，23歲的第一本書就大放異彩他，25歲就入圍法國費米娜奬他，27歲完成驚世之作《擁抱似水年華》他，31歲再度以新作《哲學的慰藉》震驚文壇，並成為紐約時報暢銷書。他，33歲帶著滿腹詩書踏上大韆世界的旅程，開講《旅行的藝術》現年35歲的他，正不斷嚮各種領域的創作題材挑戰……

We spend most of our waking lives at work a " 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 a " and night a " 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 a " in search of what makes 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, clever and inventive, de Bottona (TM)s a oesong for occupationsa is a celebration and exploration of an aspect of life that is all too often ignored and a book that shines a revealing light on the essential meaning of work in our lives.