How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

Written by Sarah Bakewell

Narrated by Davina Porter

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, perhaps the first recognizably modern individual. A nobleman, public official, and winegrower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them essays, meaning “attempts” or “tries.” He put whatever was in his head into them: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller and, over four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw readers to him. They come in search of companionship, wisdom, and entertainment—and in search of themselves.

This audiobook, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of Montaigne’s life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, his youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted “daughter,” Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readers—who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, “How to live?”

“Lively and fascinating...How to Live takes its place as the most enjoyable introduction to Montaigne in the English language.” —Times Literary Supplement

“Splendidly conceived and exquisitely written...enormously absorbing.” —Sunday Times

“[Bakewell reveals] one of literature’s enduring figures as an idiosyncratic, humane, and surprisingly modern force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“A bright, genial, and generous introduction to the master’s methods.” —Kirkus Reviews

“It is ultimately [Montaigne’s] life-loving vivacity that Bakewell succeeds in communicating to her readers.” —The Observer

“How to Live will delight and illuminate.” —The Independent

“This subtle and surprising book manages the trick of conversing in a frank and friendly manner with its centuries-old literary giant, as with a contemporary, while helpfully placing Montaigne in a historical context. The affection of the author for her subject is palpable and infectious.” —Phillip Lopate, author of The Art of the Personal Essay

“An intellectually lively treatment of a Renaissance giant and his world.” —Saturday Telegraph

“Like recent books on Proust, Joyce, and Austen, How to Live skillfully plucks a life-guide from the incessant flux of Montaigne’s prose...Superb.” —The Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781455815500

Sarah Bakewell

Sarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood in Europe, Australia and England. After studying at the University of Essex, she was a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library before becoming a full-time writer, publishing her highly acclaimed biographies The Smart and The English Dane. She lives in London, where she teaches creative writing at City University and catalogues rare book collections for the National Trust.

Reviews for How to Live

[markm2315 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Just read Montaigne.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a deceptively clever book which manages to imitate Montaigne's style while covering the story of his life and times; his critics and supporters over the centuries since his death; and the philosophical positions by which he lived. Bakewell also explains why Montaigne's book of essays was so revolutionary when first published in the late 16th century. It is quirw an enjoyable read and quite erudite without seeming so.

[tjwilson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the type of book that brings one closer to humanizing the very old past. It’s pleasing to know that someone was so enlightened and revered so far back in time, but it’s not pleasing that though his work has lasted so long, we are still trudging along and making the same mistakes. I guess it is silly to think that one open-minded thinker should change the mindset of so many when one considers the readers and heeders of other revolutionary texts of the world. But, I will judge this for myself when I start reading The Complete Essays for myself.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Montaigne was a man before his time. He was a truly enlightened man with renaissance sensibilities and a voracious appetite for philosophizing and conversation. Ultimately, he was also a sort of Buddhist - a man who valued living in the present and not taking anything/anyone (including himself) too seriously. This biography is balanced, easy to read and makes you want to read Montaigne.

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t know anything about Montaigne before reading this, and now I feel like I’ve had a great introduction to a very influential writer and also a bit of an introduction to late 16th century France. I thought the author did a great job, I liked the way she organized the chapters, sort of a combination of chronological but also by theme. And she has a great, dry sense of humor which adds a lot.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nothing to haggle on the great value of Montaigne and his Essays, but this introduction was a bit disappointing. Maybe my expectations were too high, but Bakewell’s approach is far too elaborate, and at the same time didn't add incredibly much. As with many things, nothing beats the original. It’s a pity, because I liked her “At the Existential Café" very much.

[tgraettinger_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Started out slowly, and I skimmed many of the early chapters. It caught hold later, and I actually looked forward to reading the later chapters. Hard to put a finger on what I liked or didn't. Maybe it was just the man himself coming thru the words.

[bessarion42 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book both pleasant and interesting, and of course it gives me a strong desire to finally tackle Montaigne himself. The large number of unlabelled illustrations annoyed me at first, but fully won me over in the end. Highly recommended.

[evenlake_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the best book I've read this year. Part biography, part history, part literary criticism, it explores Montaigne, his world, and his work.

Starting with Montaigne's Essays, and spiraling out to encompass his life, and the life of his work over the centuries since he died, Bakewell has written a book unlike anything else I have ever read.

[stillatim · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A well-written, very well-structured book--surprisingly so, given everything that Bakewell is trying to do: biography, reception history, philosophy, history... But I confess, her Montaigne gives me hives. In these pages, he is reliably contemporary; by far the most interesting thing about Montaigne is his untimeliness. The answer to how to live given here is, depressingly, "do what you, reader of books like this, already do: hedonism, moderation, liberalism, naturalism, centrism, agnosticism, Heracliteanism; be anti-philosophical, empathetic, unique, rebellious and, preferably, vegetarian. And, above all, seek therapy everywhere you look. "Modern readers," Bakewell writes, "who approach Montaigne asking what he can do for them are asking the same question he himself asked of Seneca, Sextus, and Lucretius...", which is both false--inasmuch as Montaigne seems to have been a notably disinterested reader, looking for other people, rather than trying to see how they can profit him--and obnoxious, because it implies that this just is how modern readers approach Montaigne. For Bakewell, and readers like her, Montaigne's only relation to his own time was to stand in opposition to it, while his only relation to our time is to conform to it. It would be nice if we could approach him in the opposite manner: a man deeply at odds with many of our own preconceptions about what it is to lead a good life. Montaigne spends most of his time writing about things other than himself, because he is interested in things other than himself. Predictably, but tiresomely, Bakewell tries to turn Montaigne into a kind of proto-deist: Montaigne commends his spirit to God on his death bed; for Bakewell, this is "a final act of Catholic convention: a brief acknowledgment to God in the life of this joyfully secular man"--as if our divisions of secular and religious can be read back into the sixteenth century, not to mention our divisions of convention and sincerity). But there's no reason to doubt that he was a genuinely devoted Catholic, as he understood that.

Also, any readers of Descartes are advised to stay well clear of his appearance in the book; Descartes, a man who famously died because he was told to get out of bed before noon, is here a Puritan who hated everything except mathematics.

I'm torn between genuine, gob-smacked admiration for Bakewell's ability to structure a book this complex, and rage at her inability to find in a sixteenth century Frenchman anything other than a twenty-first century American.

[pivic-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In one of the logs that I use to note and review books there are "tags". These tags are words and terms used to describe the book, e.g. "analysis", "philosophy" and "war". I've I have never attributed a book so many tags as I have used here, and I'm not exaggerating a single thing.

This book is about Michel de Montaigne, a sixteenth-century nobleman who wrote down his thoughts and ideas in ways that very few other people had done so far. This book provides a somewhat chronological walk through the life of Montaigne, while issuing 20 attempts to twist the question "How to live?" as seen through his ways and eyes, and while being fairly complex, it's extremely simple to read. And I think a huge portion of why it's so accessible and laudable, is because it's unique and understandable:

From page 293 in the book, where Bakewell describes how Marie de Gournay felt when she discovered Montaigne's "Essays":

Some time in her late teens, apparently by chance, she came across an edition of the Essays. The experience was so shattering that her mother thought she had gone mad: she was on the point of giving the girl hellebore, a traditional treatment for insanity - or so Gournay herself says, perhaps exaggerating for effect. Gournay felt she had found her other self in Montaigne, the one person with whom she had a true affinity, and the only one to understand her. It was the experience so many of his readers have had over the years:

How did he know all that about me? (Bernard Levin)

It seems he is my very self. (André Gide)

Here is a 'you' in which my 'I' is reflected; here is where all distance is abolished. (Stefan Zweig)

Time and time again, Montaigne struck me as quite marvellous, simply because of his reasoning; he maintained that everything should be experienced with fresh eyes no matter how many times it has been seen before. And also, he believed that everything should be questioned. Yes, everything, but with a purpose.

As Virginia Woolf was, according to Bakewell, prone to quote, this is a line from Montaigne's last essay:

Life should be an aim unto itself, a purpose unto itself.

In his writing about everything, his examinations of everything, people who read his gigantic work - which I have yet not read - seem to love and critique it, simply because Montaigne continually examined his own flaws, errors and problems - and he stirs, and quickly traipsing from one subject to another in his writing, by following a trail of thought - not because he's trying to be difficult, but rather because he is human; I believe he was truly trying to discover what being human was about, and I think that's why people love his writing, not to forget his fantastic, amazing and provoking reason. All of this is superbly put into historical context by Bakewell; when Montaigne questions that he could have been killed for, it's clear to see that he meant what he said and did (also, while being flawed enough to go against himself at times; what the hell, he was human and knew it).

Another quote from this book:

But Montaigne offers more than an incitement to self-indulgence. The twenty-first century has everything to gain from a Montaignean sense of life, and, in its most troubled moments so far, it has been sorely in need of a Montaignean politics. It could use his sense of moderation, his love of sociability and courtesy, his suspension of judgement, and his subtle understanding of the psychological mechanisms involved in confrontation and conflict. It needs his conviction that no vision of heaven, no imagined Apocalypse, and no perfectionist fantasy can ever outweigh the tiniest of selves in the real world. It is unthinkable to Montaigne that one could ever 'gratify heaven and nature by committing massacre and homicide, a belief universally embraced in all religions.' To believe that life could demand any such thing is to forget what day-to-day existence actually is. It entails forgetting that, when you look at a puppy held over a bucket of water, or even at a cat in the mood for play, you are looking at a creature that looks back at you. No abstract principles are involved; there are only two individuals, face to face, hoping for the best from one another.

Perhaps some of the credit for Montaigne's last answer should therefore go to his cat - a specific sixteenth-century individual, who had a rather pleasant life on a country estate with a doting master and not too much competition for his attention. She was the one who, by wanting to play with Montaigne at an inconvenient moment, reminded him what it was to be alive. They looked at each other, and, just for a moment, he leaped across the gap in order to see himself through her eyes. Out of that moment - and countless others like it - came his whole philosophy.

This book is radiant, a marvellous excursion for a Montaigne neophyte like myself, and I recommend this to everybody.

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was concerned early with the tome's survey approach. I recall the reviews of The Rest Is Noise where critics touted it as containing an entire university education within its covers: I thought, well, not much of one.

Ms. Bakewell shines when she is able to eschew the fundamental and devote attention to the elusive, supple thoughts of the Maestro. I was touched by this book.

[baswood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays translated and edited with an introduction and notes by M. A. Screech].[How to Live, A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer] by Sarah Bakewell.Reading the Complete essays I had to wait a long time before I came across that “How did he know that about me” moment which Sarah Bakewell claims in her book is a feature many readers experience, this was mine:“As soon as I arrived I spelled out my character faithfully and truly, just as I know myself to be – no memory, no concentration, no experience, no drive; no hatred either, no ambition, no covetousness, no ferocity – so that they should be told, and therefore know, what to expect from my service”(Montaigne, Michel. The Complete Essays (p. 1137). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.) This quote is in the essay/chapter “ on restraining your will and covers Montaigne’s two periods as Mayor of Bordeaux. It comes from book three page 1,137 out of a total page count of 1,269 pages and so as a reader you have to be pretty keen to read through the whole lot. I was helped by M. A. Screech’s excellent translation that somehow brings the 16th century text alive and readable for 21st century readers. He aids the reader by an excellent main introduction; a heading to each new chapter and over 250 pages of notes. The essays vary wildly in length for example the first chapter of book 1 “We reach the same end by discrepant means” is four pages long whereas “An Apology for Raymond Sebond” clocks in at nearly 200 pages almost a book in itself. Montaigne was a Renaissance man and so his store of knowledge, his ideas on philosophy were mostly generated by his love for antiquity. The majority of his anecdotes come from classical literature, with many quotes in Latin and Screech translates these for us immediately following the quotation so the flow of the essays is not interrupted. Montaigne spent 20 years ruminating and adding to his work and each edition during his lifetime had amendments (usually additions to the original text) Screech incorporates these into the main body of the text with a symbol (A, A1, B, or C) to denote their origin. This all seems to work pretty smoothly.There is no substitute to reading the essays themselves, they are a unique experience. Montaigne writes exclusively about himself, but without a hint of pride, boastfulness or grandeur, he is aiming at self knowledge with the belief that if he can get some of it down on paper then he will also be writing about most other people as well, because he believed that the similarities vastly outweighed the differences. From Montaigne we understand that the way people see and feel about issues and about themselves change with age, with new experiences, or even depending on how they felt that particular day, but there is a basic thread running throughout our lives that Montaigne wishes to expose. Perhaps that is why so many readers through the centuries have seen themselves in Montaigne’s essays. Montaigne writes about day to day events, about travel, about education about death, about work, about being in the moment, about sex, about melancholy, about anger and about a natural theology. All the time he sets down how he feels about the subject that is concerning him and links it back to the wisdom (or otherwise) of antiquity. He can be humorous, serious, thoughtful, but never didactic; his search for truth makes his honesty almost painful at times. He exposes himself so that others can see themselves and I think you need a certain amount of courage to do that. Montaigne’s world seems equally divided between 16th century France and classical Rome and some readers might find too much classicism in the essays, but this grounds the author as a typical renaissance man. A man of his times that can communicate forward to current times. Not to be missed especially with M A Screech’s excellent translation and introductions. 5 stars.Sarah Bakewell’s [How to Live, A life of Montaigne] is written for contemporary readers almost like an overnight sensation - wham bam thank you mame - This is Montaigne she shouts, don’t miss out - you too will find yourself in my/this book. In her first chapter she nails her colours too the mast:“Since it is a twenty-first-century book it is inevitably pervaded by a twenty-first-century Montaigne . As one of his favourite adages had it, there is no escaping our perspective: we can walk on our own legs and sit only on our own bum.” So Bakewell sets about picking out the bits of Montaigne that she thinks will appeal to her 21st century audience, which unsurprisingly misses some of what Montaigne was about.Having read the essays myself I asked myself the following questions before picking up Sarah Bakewell’s book:1) Does the book add anything to the reading of the essays.2) Does it supply any additional information.3) Is it a substitute for reading Montaigne4) How accurate is it with reference to the text?Well lets start with the positives: Bakewell’s book is subtitled A Life of Montaigne and she does fill in some background information. She has good chapters on the religious wars that for most of his life threatened to engulf Montaigne, she tells us about Montaigne's family and private life and how he worked, she tells us about the printing history of the book; its reception at the time and then through the subsequent centuries and so in this respect it answers questions 1) and 2). I found Bakewell’s writing lively and interesting; of course she cannot help but add her own thoughts on Montaigne’s situation but I found nothing too jarring here. She even attempts to provide her readers with a bit of grounding in Hellenistic philosophy and although I found this chapter a little glib it was better than nothing. So far so good, but then doubts started to creep in, surely she was going to say something more about Montaigne’s classical references, especially after she had told us that Montaigne was made to converse in Latin from his first attempts at speech until he was sent away to school. Surely she was going to “home in” on the near 200 page essay where Montaigne expounds his ideas on a natural theology. It was important enough for him to write such a long chapter, so there should be some commentary from Bakewell. Montaigne had a deep respect for nature in which he saw Gods handiwork, this is an underlying theme throughout the essays and is nailed down in his “Apology for Raymond Sebond. Bakewell rightly highlights Montaigne’s preoccupation with death and his own approach to death, but picks out the chapter where he describes his own near death experience after a hunting accident and makes this a sort of watershed for all subsequent thoughts. Then there is her claim that Montaigne had never been a soldier ………………..So does Bakewell see her book as a sort of substitute for reading Montaigne’s essays, she never says it is, but I can imagine that many readers will read this book and think that they have read Montaigne. They would be wrong, because reading Bakewells comments on Montaigne would be like reading a commentary on Moby-Dick which claimed the main theme of that book was a mans obsession with killing a white whale. So I cannot recommend this book as a critique of Montaigne and it falls short in being A Life, however it is an entertaining read and if it leads people to dip into the real thing then it cannot be all bad 3.5 stars.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Biographies tend to follow a predictable format - birth, life, death; for most, this is a perfectly acceptable route to follow, and I'm put in mind here of the success that Selina Hastings had with 'The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham.' But there would be something almost perverse about offering the same treatment to the great French essayist Montaigne, given how his own writing looped and spiraled around, dodging the point when you most expected him to face it head-on, exploring tangents that shed new light on the main issue... and so Sarah Bakewell's 'Life', which takes the form of an ultra-literary self-help manual, is the perfect kind of biography for one of history's greatest, most unusual, deep thinkers.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I suspect that 2017 is going to be the year of Sarah Bakewell, as far as I am concerned. I was enchanted by her ‘At the Existentialist Café’ a couple of months ago, and found this book even more delightful: informative, insightful and immensely entertaining.Michel de Montaigne lived in France during the sixteenth century and his collection of ‘Essays’ (a term that he coined) is one of the most important and enduring works of the late Renaissance. His life was spent in the pursuit of knowledge and a relentless quest to sate his boundless curiosity. Having been born into the nobility, his father sent him out to be fostered by a family of local peasants for the first two years of his life. Thereafter he was brought back to the family home, but his father insisted that the child be brought up as a natural speaker of Latin, employing a tutor to teach the infant from the onset of his attempts to talk. From his father he inherited a love of books, and a position of relative ease, though he embarked on a career in local government, eventually being appointed joint Mayor of Bordeaux. This was not a sinecure, and his administration required tactful navigation of a time when religious sectarianism was flaring out of control throughout France.Montaigne’s ‘Essays’ defy definition incorporating elements of autobiography, political commentary and personal observation along with highly imaginative speculation about the nature and wonders of life. The ‘Essays’ were written over a considerable period spanning most of Montaigne’s life, and his position did not remain consistent. While nominally a Roman Catholic, many commentators have speculated whether he was actually an atheist; others suspect him of Protestant sympathies.Sarah Bakewell’s book is equally hard to categorise. While essentially telling the story of Montaigne’s life, it also presents a high quality literary critique of the ‘Essays’, analyses the prevailing philosophical views of the time and offers an enthralling history of France in that troubled century. She also provides an extensive exegesis of the responses to Montaigne in the centuries following his death. It is, indeed, nothing less than a rhapsodic paean to Montaigne’s work, fired by Bakewell’s extensive knowledge and clearness fondness for the book. It is not, however, a hagiography, and she does not refrain from criticising some of the weaknesses that she identifies in Montaigne’s approach.Like Montaigne himself, who has been feted for centuries as a surprisingly accessible writer, Bakewell has an appealing lightness of touch, and the book is a joy to read throughout.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was skeptical of this book, but I fell in love with it in the end. I can't remember the last time I read a book about a sixteenth-century essayist and wanted to start over and reread it as soon as I finished it. I want to read Montaigne's Essays (I haven't read any of them since college) and then I want to read this again. Highly recommended.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First a confession. I had never read Montaigne before I picked up this book. Read him? I don't remember even having heard of him. Not something to brag about, I guess, given all the literary luminaries quoted in this book who were much affected by his writing.  Ms. Bakewell is convincing that "Montaigne: c'est moi!" happened to a lot of his readers, but reading about him via Bakewell didn't bring that sensation to me. Should I have read at least some of his essays first? Should she have included some? I liked the way the author included a history of the times and how Montaigne fit in, or didn't. I especially liked how she followed Montaigne's influence on other thinkers (Pascal, Rousseau, Nietzsche, many others) right up to the 21st century.

[parthurbook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Giving a rating to this book says more about my taste (and expectations) than the quality of Sarah Bakewell's writing. It is a well researched and structured life of the C16th founder of the personal essay discipline; the author has built a deep and much cared-for picture of her subject, resulting in a somewhat academic tone. Yet for all the work, insight - and even the promise of its cover design - there's an absence of the humour and fluidity in Montaigne's work, best caught in his "I do not portray being; I portray passing." The categorization on the cover says Biography/Philosophy; 'How to Live' is first class in the former, rather missing the playful tone I was looking in the latter.

[gendeg-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Michel de Montaigne: Definitely on my list of famous-people-I’d-like-to-have-dinner-with. I was surprised to learn that Montaigne started writing pretty late in life—not until after he’d reach the ripe old age of 39—completing 107 essays before his death at the end of the 16th century. I first encountered Montaigne’s Essays as a freshman in college. I rarely remember the loftier chapters from him; mostly what I do remember are those lessons on the profoundly basic stuff. Collectively, these jottings coalesced into this matter of fact ethical prescription for living. I also remember his writing—it had style, it felt far beyond its time. What sets Montaigne apart from other memoirists of his day was how he didn’t drone on about accomplishments. He didn't bray with authority. His work seems like it could be the precursor of the style of essay writing you see today—self-indulgently navel-gazing and personal, while at the same time contemplative and universal. It made Montaigne so ... flawed, funny, deep. He was thoroughly modern and even timeless in that respect. Sarah Bakewell in How to Live explores how and why Montaigne’s writing has withstood judgment so merrily and endured so much cultural and social transformation and change over the centuries. He has that special skill to seem like he is speaking directly to you. "Readers approach him from their private perspectives, contributing their own experience of life. … The Essays is thus much more than a book. It is a centuries-long conversation between Montaigne and all those who have got to know him: a conversation which changes through history, while starting out afresh almost every time with that cry of “How did he know all that about me?” Mostly it remains a two-person encounter between writer and reader. But sidelong chat goes on among the readers too; consciously or not, each generation approaches Montaigne with expectations derived from its contemporaries and predecessors. As the story goes on, the scene becomes more crowded. It turns from a private dinner party to a great lively banquet, with Montaigne as an unwitting master of ceremonies."Bakewell extracts twenty-one lessons to ponder, weaving a nonlinear biographical history of Montaigne into the core ideas of his collective work. The idea that a pretty ho-hum life could be so inspiring—makes for surprisingly fascinating reading.M. basically asks ’what is it to be human?’ without asking it outright in a way that would have been pedantic and stiff. He was a student of life, but not in some cold, scientific way but as one who’s simply writing a blog. He’s constantly watching people, colleagues and neighbors, even the animals—his cat, most memorably. He is the patron saint of bloggers and cultural curation. He would have made an amazing podcast guest or documentary filmmaker. He explored things as banal as feelings: What was it like to be pissed off or excited or ashamed? Or to have an out of body experience? To feel bored and lazy? To be completely anxious and accepting of one’s faults and shortcomings? Ultimately, what Bakewell does so well in this book is honing in on Montaigne’s ability to illuminate the ordinary life:"I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Indeed, that is just what a common and private life is: a life of the richest stuff imaginable."How to Live is filled with tidbits of wisdom, the kind based on a conviction and faith in human nature, of who we really are.

[kirklowery · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Apparently, Montaigne is hard to write about, because he is hard to read. I don't know how to evaluate Bakewell's success or lack of it in her book. It is certainly as meandering as Montaigne. Somehow, she does move forward -- if not in a straight line. I did like the way she included a history of the times and how Montaigne fit in, or didn't. I especially liked how she followed Montaigne's influence on other thinkers (Pascal, Rousseau, Nitzsche, many others) right up to the 21st century. She pays attention to the literary and even textual scholarship on Montaigne's Essays.

It was not her intention, but the result of reading her book for me was to make me much less interested in reading Montaigne himself. Although Montaigne may speak to everyone, she claims, what she cited and described left me gasping for intellectual breath, as in, no oxygen.

But I should probably get around to reading Montaigne. Or maybe not. Montaigne would say, "Whatever."

[suzannagram · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Must read Montaigne's essays on living first. How to Live: Life of Montaigne acts as a companion book, backgrounds, contexts, depth, and anecdotes.

[wolfseule · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ich mochte es, das trifft es ganz gut. Es ist unlangweilig, es ist unterhaltsam, ohne sich auf Albernes zu beschränken und selbstredend will ich jetzt Montaigne lesen. Großes Plus: die Autorin sieht extremst sympathisch aus.

[ericfitz08 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lively and interesting history of Montaigne (the man), his legacy, and his ideas. If Blakewell seems to infuse her opinion, it makes the whole thing just that more Montaignian. Plus, it is one of my all time favorite book titles. Plenty to enjoy, plenty to learn, plenty to love. Also, an excellent advertisement for Montaigne's Essays

[jawalter · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can't decide whether the fact that I wish I'd just read Montaigne's Essays instead of Bakewell's book is a criticism or an endorsement. The author certainly presents an enlighteing view of the essayist, explicating not only his writing, but also his personal life and the context of the historical events through which he lived. Even the structure of the book, elaborating on twenty possible Montaigne-ian answers to the question of how we should live, manages to be both engaging and appropriate to the man himself.

Yet at the same time, I found myself slightly annoyed with the book. The twenty answers she chooses can seem excessively vague, little more than excuses to write about various biographical details of Montaigne's life. The digressions into French political history and the cultural response to his writing, although clearly pertinent to her subject matter, frequently seemed like little more than distractions.

I don't want to sound too critical, because I do think that the author does a wonderfully informative job of describing a subject I find quite captivating. This is really just another situation in which I have once again set my expectations too high, having judged the book by its overly-long title. I suspect my appreciation for her work would be much greater if I had approached it as merely preparatory material for reading Montaigne myself, rather than as direct access to some mysterious font of wisdom.

[391_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Though I found this book at times tedious, it is a fantastic overview of Montaigne's life and philosophies. The writer is so devotedly engaged to her task of bringing Montaigne to life, and I think she accomplishes it magnificently. She really captures the historical background and biography that is necessary to a deeper understanding of Essays, and she brings such passion and delight for her subject that it is very enjoyable.

[spounds_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First a confession. I had never read Montaigne before I picked up this book. Read him? I hadn't even heard of him. Not something to brag about, I guess, given all the literary luminaries quoted in this book who were much affected by Montaigne's writing. So why pick up a biography about someone I had never heard of? Because it was a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner--and more than that it was a $1.99 Kindle Daily Deal! And what a deal--this was a delightful book.Instead of being a straightforward biography, this book asks the same question that Montaigne himself continually tried to answer--How to live? Each chapter presents an answer based on Montaigne's life and through those answers we learn who he was and what he was. And while it is a biography of the man, it is also a biography of his essays--how they were written/rewritten, gathered, edited, and published. The stories of man and book interweave with a spackling of European history and it all results in a most enjoyable read.Highly recommended!

[librarianbryan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was alright but really just read Montaigne's Essays. This is really just an advert for them anyway.

[adzebill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author goes beyond a De Botton-ish summary of Montaigne’s philosophy by interweaving this with his life and his “afterlife”: the three strands run consecutively, not concurrently, a slightly postmodern device you wish more biographers used. Very approachable and and quirkily written.

[michaelbartley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this biography of Montaigne and his work Essays. It whowed how the work was written how it was seened in different times. Montaigne was a very interesting man

[fkarr_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

excellent: entertaining, informative, enlightening; a biography not heavy on detail but on the essence of Montaigne's spirit