Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

De Botton asks whether Proust has anything to say about love and romance. Proust himself, in a letter, asserted that he was excellent at arranging everyone's happiness in love except for his own. Proust touted his selflessness and powers of diplomacy.

The frequent problem with love, of loving someone for a long period of time, is a human being's tendency to become bored and restless, even ungrateful, in regards to objects and people that are ever-present and easily accessible. For an example, Proust lamented when people complained about a telephone call failing or a hum in the telephone line. The telephone is a marvelous invention and yet because people were familiar with it and it was an everyday object, they treated it with contempt. For an example in In Search of Lost Time, the narrator becomes enamored of being with a...