Book description
In The Happy Life David Malouf addresses one of the most
fundamental questions of all: what makes for a happy life? In an age
where our bookshelves are full of self-help volumes and tales of
perfect romantic love, his discussion is particularly relevant. He
asks why, when so many of the essential 'unhappinesses' - premature
death, famine, plague, material poverty - have largely disappeared in
the developed world, does happiness continue to elude us?
With elegance and insight, David Malouf finds new and old ways to
talk about contentment and the self. He returns to the wisdom of the
classics, and discusses how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson, happiness
became a 'right'; in a dialogue on Rubens and Rembrandt he explores
the sensual happiness of the flesh; he covers the difficulties of the
modern world's obsession with consumption; and finally the consolation
and sympathy provided by art and literature.
In luminous prose, with ideas to savour and reflect upon, Malouf
distills millennia of thought and philosophy in The Happy Life
into a fascinating and tangible argument.
David Malouf is an internationally acclaimed author. His books
include the novels
The Great World
(winner of the Commonwealth Writers' prize and the Prix Femina Ã
tranger),
Remembering Babylon
(shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award),
An Imaginary Life
,
Conversations at Curlow Creek,
and his latest,
Ransom
(winner of the Criticos Prize), the short story collections
Dream Stuff
('These stories are pearls'
Spectator
), and
Every Move You Make
('Rare and luminous talent'
Guardian
), and his autobiographical classic
12 Edmondstone Street.
His
Collected Stories
won the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award. In 2008 Malouf was the
Scottish Arts' Council Muriel Spark International Fellow. Born in 1934
in Brisbane, he now lives in Sydney.
