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1-Page Summary of The Art of Travel
Overall Summary
In The Art of Travel, author Alain de Botton reflects on the philosophical dimensions of travel. He wonders how and why people should travel, not just where. To this end, in each of the book’s nine essays, he juxtaposes his own travels with those of other writers and artists (all are European men from the 18th and 19th centuries). De Botton argues that travel teaches people about their own character by exposing them to places they may discover they prefer over home; it also teaches them about beauty and humanity’s limited perspective as well as a sense of wonder for things we take for granted.
In his first essay, de Botton talks about how we often have high expectations for travel, but then are disappointed when we finally get there. He says that people expect to find serenity and happiness on vacation, which they think of as a break from their everyday lives. But they don’t realize that this can’t happen until after their basic psychological needs are met. De Botton compares his trip to Barbados to the one in JK Huysman’s novel À Rebours. In the book, someone goes on vacation to London because he has read Dickens’ novels about it and is excited by them, but decides not go through with it once he gets there because he realizes that it isn’t what he thought it would be like. De Botton argues that although travel might disappoint our expectations sometimes, doesn’t mean vacations aren’t worthwhile or interesting; rather than being failures, they can differ from people’s preconceived notions.
De Botton discusses travel in his essay, “On Traveling Places”. He talks about the virtues of traveling and how it can be a positive experience. De Botton compares airports, service stations, shipyards, motels and train cars to poetry by Charles Baudelaire and paintings by Edward Hopper. Through these comparisons he finds that people are attracted to lonely places because they are poetic and have an air of happiness surrounding them. However, de Botton also believes that those who live their lives as wanderers will never find true satisfaction for there is no such thing as perfect happiness or perfection in life; therefore travelers will always be searching for something better than what they already have which makes them unhappy with where they currently reside.
In the essay “On the Exotic,” de Botton discusses how Gustave Flaubert, a French novelist from the 19th century, was captivated by Egypt. He compares this to his own fascination with cultural differences between Amsterdam and London. De Botton says that he feels more at home in Dutch culture than he does in British culture because of all the differences between them (the vowels sound different, etc.). He argues that finding foreign cultures can help you learn about your own aesthetic sensibilities and even contribute to personal fulfillment.
The fourth essay explores curiosity. Alexander von Humboldt’s insatiable desire for knowledge contrasts with Alain de Botton’s lack of it, as he regrets his trip to Madrid. De Botton says that the world is already discovered and there isn’t much left to discover, whereas Humboldt wanted to learn everything he could about South America during his expedition. Nietzsche’s distinction between collecting facts in a scientific way versus learning them personally helps de Botton argue that tourism can only be meaningful if travelers connect their experience with deeper questions at the core of human existence.
In “On the Country and the City”, Alain de Botton retraces William Wordsworth’s steps around England’s Lake District. Wordsworth believed that city people could overcome their anxieties by experiencing nature in a mindful way. This idea was embraced by many, who then moved to rural areas like the Lake District. De Botton followed them there and started to notice things about trees, animals, and landscapes that he hadn’t noticed before or thought of as having points of view. He learned how to use memories of moments in nature as a therapeutic tool for stress relief when he returned home from his busy life in London.
