Status Anxiety, Alain De BottonWe all worry about what others think of us. We all long to succeed and fear failure. We all suffer to a greater or lesser degree, usually privately and with embarrassment from status anxiety. For the first time, Alain de Botton gives a name to this universal condition and sets out to investigate both its origins and possible solutions. He looks at history, philosophy, economics, art and politics and reveals the many ingenious ways that great minds

" --Forbes

Collins Classics edition of They Odyssey

can make life seem magical

letting you show off

whatever the official term is for someone tasked with breaking the news to a prisoner that his girlfriend has been diagnosed with gonorrhoea

nurse each other through sickness and disappointments

He looks at history

Jane Eyre and Camilla Parker-Bowles have in common

or is she the very definition of the emancipated

the Roman Emperor

Don Quixote

‘Dave Pelzer conveys brilliantly how his own determination allowed him to keep alive his dream of one day find a family who would be proud to call him their son