Rating: 
Summary: the romantic movement builds up steam
Review: I have to say that at first i was a little disapointed in the sameness between this book and the much loved On-love. To the causal eye it looks like all that changed was the gender of the lead chacter. And the personal verabilty of the first book is gone. Since this book is not based on Mr de botton's own romantic pursuit. I was basicly trodding plasently along when i sumpled on in the middle of chapther entitled "what are we loved for?" It truly is nothing short of genuis. And the book off from there. The ending is so marvlous that a part of me felt cheated it didnt continue. If I had to a mataphor for this book i would use a culinary one. Its like that not only is delisous but healthy and your sadened theres no left-overs
Rating:
Summary: Unique
Review: I have wanted to read How Proust can change your life for years but have not read it. When I saw this book, I decided this is a good point to start and bought it. I liked it, it is very different than popular relationship books. Not very funny but easy to read and enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: A great writer, perhaps not his best book
Review: I love this writer. He's clever, funny, touching. This isn't his best book, for that check out How Proust can change your life and On Love, but once you sample how good he is, you'll start to love whatever he does.
Rating:
Summary: Another Good One from de Botton
Review: Like On Love and Kiss & Tell, Botton uses the fiction format to examine a romantic relationship from beginning to end in witty and telling detail. Like these other two books, there are diagrams and charts sprinkled throughout to illustrate various analogies and examples. Here, the relationship is between a 24-year old London woman and a professionally and financial successful 30ish man. As with the other books, there is a lot to be gotten out of de Botton's crisp prose. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: We're All Romantics
Review: Loved this book. Wonderfully perceptive for a young man. Accurate and analytical while retaining a delicious sense of humor. This book should be mandatory reading for every 18 year old and the18 year old in all of us. The Romantic Movement is a simple and refreshing look at the relationship quagmire we all find ourselves in at some point of our lives. No psycho babble here just straight forward narrative that we can all empathize with. In the end, a better understanding of our needs, whims and idiosyncrasies all rendered in a amusing manner.
Rating:
Summary: Art or Life?
Review: Nowhere on the cover or copyright page of this book does the publisher classify it as a novel...or as a work of philosophy, for that matter. I can't help thinking that this playful insouciance was probably at the insistance of the author. Alain de Botton has twice previously used a loose novelistic form to help readers engage with centuries-old philosophical ideas and dilemmas. His first, ON LOVE (US title), was nicely conceived and tightly executed; the second, KISS & TELL, had a darker, smarmier aspect since it included photographs of its young female subject and I couldn't shake the sense that I was peeking into someone dirty clothes basket without her consent.
THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT is the most loosely assembled of the three novels (if, in fact, it is a novel). It follows a young woman's unexpected and unplanned journey into a romantic relationship (not her first) with a banker a few years her senior. Her name is Alice and the author clearly intends the reader to make connections to Lewis Carroll's young "adventurer." Secondary characters are added and dropped as needed and the novel, were it not so unique and fun, might be deemed a failure if judged by conventional standards.
The arc of the story follows the predictable flow of the young couple's relationship--courtship, sexual consumation, mutual testing, failed communications, unexpressed expectations, outside flirtations, and eventual devolution. Nothing unusual or dramatic here. What is riveting is the way Botton is able to use philosophy to examine these very ordinary experiences. I think readers will have no trouble identifying with most of the thought processes recounted here and attributed to one of the two main characters. The novel (again, if it is a novel) is loaded with "Ah-ha" moments.
A rundown of some of the chapter titles will give you a sense of the range of issues Botton tackles: "Reality," "Art and Life," "Story Envy," "In Love with Love," "Sex, Shopping, and the Novel," "Predictability," "Power and 007," "Religious Relationships," "Diving, Rousseau and Thinking Too Much," "Provincialism," "Passing the Guilt," and "Who Makes the Effort?" My favorite of his observations is from the chapter "Jollyism": "Gossip is an exercise in trust: a person feels free to gossip when they feel they have someone to understand their objections. It is a colluding activity; two people leave the main group and open their parcel of gossip material" (p. 205). Botton is happy to be our gossip partner and has many such parcels to open with us. If you haven't colluded with Botton already, THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT is a good place to start.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic love story
Review: Quite the best study of male-female relationships I have ever read. De Botton is a masterful analyst of human emotions, and happens also to write like an angel
Rating:
Summary: yes
Review: The best book to take to the beach after a disastrous affair
Rating: 
Summary: His worst novel
Review: This novel reads like a pot boiler after On Love. The format and themes are identical but the inspiration of the former work is lacking. The characters are unappealing spoiled brats fail to arouse the empathy De Botton probably intends. De Botton integrates the thoughts of great writers into his story. At times his parallels are farfetched and one gets the impression that he is merely parading his classical education. These pedantic displays can also be annoying.
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