Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Status Anxiety cover art

Status Anxiety

By: Alain de Botton
Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

On Confidence cover art
How Proust Can Change Your Life cover art
Essays in Love cover art
Calm cover art
Anxiety cover art
The School of Life: On Failure cover art
A Simpler Life cover art
Ghalib: The Man, the Times cover art
Looking Backward cover art
To Fight Against This Age cover art
Anxiety and Panic: How to Reshape Your Anxious Mind and Brain cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Brave New World cover art
Asian Journals cover art
A Guide to the Good Life cover art
Fallen Leaves cover art

Summary

Do you worry about how well you're doing? Are you envious of your friends' success? Are you suffering from status anxiety?

We 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 his 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 have overcome their worries. The result is a book that is not only entertaining and thought-provoking - but genuinely wise and helpful as well.

©2004 Alain de Botton (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"De Botton is in tune with the times. He is artful in defining the contemporary Western condition, and through careful deliberation places his concepts in everyday, historical, and cultural contexts. And he does it with wit: his mock tabloid headline for Oedipus the King is: "Sex with Mum was Blinding". He does not deserve the frequent criticism of his fragmentary style (which veritably adds to the pleasure), and of watering down philosophy. If philosophy is to be revived as a pertinent inquiry into the nature of being, which is what it is, then why shouldn't the masses partake in it?" ( Sydney Morning Herald)

What listeners say about Status Anxiety

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An in depth look at the history of status

Some great little insights, but dragged a little in places. Good for a different perspective

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

just not convinced by his arguments this time

I loved de Botton's "the consolations of philosophy" - the consolations really did console me.
however, here they did not.
his premises seemed full of holes, even to my undergrad philosophy brain.
I wonder if the difference is that in "consolations", the arguments came from history's greatest thinkers whereas here, they seemed to largely come from de Botton's thinking.
I haven't read anything else by him so it's a weak argument I have..... appropriate here, I argue

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!