How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer [Paperback]

This is not so much a biography of Michel de Montaigne as it is a biography of his book ... which is a legitimate approach since Montaigne himself described the Essays as a portrait of himself, a model of the author in text form. So, Ms. Bakewell has given us many facts about Montaigne's life as well as chronicling the fortunes of the Essays during his life as well as the endless revisions and re-interpretations that occurred after his death. The story is told in true Montaignian fashion, out of chronological order and with numerous digressions, with chapter headings that consist of twenty hypothetical answers to the book's central question: "How to live?" Unlike Montaigne, the content of each chapter stays (mostly) relevant to the subject in its heading. The back of the book contains a brief timeline, an index, and a list of notes. (Strangely these numbered notes are not indicated in the text, making them essentially useless; but that may just be an idiosyncrasy of the Uncorrected Proof copy which I read.)

I first discovered Montaigne when I happened upon the Essays in the History section of the bookstore. I knew nothing about him, but the dust-jacket blurb described him as the inventor of the essay, literature's first "modern" writer, an affable gentleman who good-naturedly natters on at length about any topic that catches his fancy (his favorite subject being himself). His mind wanders and his pen follows it wherever it happens to go. I bought the book, expecting nothing more than to be entertained, and was amazed to discover how emotionally uplifting it was. Montaigne apparently did not wish to consider himself a "philosopher" yet that's what he seemed to be. Here's an educated, well-read guy with an agreeable, easygoing manner .. completely scatterbrained and yet so WISE .. he seemed to have come to grips with his own mortality and figured out all of life's Big Questions, over 400 years ago. I was impressed. I found him to be intensely relevant and overflowing with thoughts and opinions that made So Much Sense, they perfectly matched my own.

Now Ms. Bakewell's book makes it clear that my Montaigne experience is typical. Many of the great and not-so-great minds of Western civilization (since 1580) have read the Essays and gotten the eerie impression that it was written specifically for them. Many of these stories are told briefly in the book, but the biggest section is devoted to Pascal and Descartes who were strongly influenced in a _negative_ way by Montaigne. Much of their most memorable work was a reaction against him. It's truly the mark of a classic when a book continues to be so influential centuries after the author's death.

_How to Live_ is not "necessary" reading by any means (you can get full enjoyment from the Essays without knowing any of this background information) but it does add some value by shedding light on the collective experience of people reading and reacting to the Essays throughout history. It is written in an approachable, readable style and is very respectful of its subject. I can recommend it as an introduction or a companion to the Essays.

You've heard of hybrid cars? Get ready for the hybrid biography. Sarah Bakewell's luminous HOW TO LIVE is just that -- an inspired collision of biography, philosophy, history, rhetoric, and literary criticism, all sprinkled with a dollop of self-help. That's right, Bakewell shows how seamlessly Michel Eyquem de Montaigne can enter the 21st century and offer advice to the harried reader. Montaigne, after all, was anything BUT harried. Calm, cool, collected, stoic. That was our man in France.

Now most readers undertake a biography because they are interested in the subject. I was more intrigued by the critical buzz Bakewell's book garnered in the press. And so it was that I got to know Montaigne, famous author of the ESSAYS, through Bakewell's unique design of 20 chapters all based on the question "How to Live?" with a different answer. They are, in order, "Don't Worry About Death," "Pay Attention," "Be Born" (Editor's Note: Very funny), "Read A Lot, Forget Most of What You Read, and Be Slow-Witted," "Survive Love and Loss," "Use Little Tricks," "Question Everything," "Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop," "Be Convivial: Live With Others," "Wake From the Sleep of Habit," "Live Temperately," "Do Something No One Has Done Before," "Do a Good Job, But Not TOO Good a Job," "Philosophize Only by Accident," "Reflect on Everything; Regret Nothing," "Be Ordinary and Imperfect" (Editor's Note: Easy!), "Give Up Control," and "Let Life Be Its Own Answer." If those topics intrigue you in any way, so will this book.

What did I learn? Of course, as expected, a lot about Montaigne's life as that is the main thread. The bonuses for me were things like short but essential lessons in philosophies that influenced Montaigne (Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics) and in personalities that he in turn influenced or outraged (Pascal, Rousseau, Voltaire, Nietzsche, etc.). Also, there was the history lesson on 16th-century France's religious wars (Catholics v. Protestants). Bloody good. And then there were all the snippets from Montaigne's essays themselves. Some readers may want to read more by tackling the behemoth ESSAYS after this book. Others may feel that this sampler is sufficient unto itself -- after all, you come out more knowledgeable about the man, his approach toward life, his writing style, and even his translators.

Overall, it's an unusually refreshing run at what should have been staidly-boring material. Bakewell's theme is that Montaigne is more interesting and timeless than you think. Her hybrid biography proves the point by meeting the same criteria. If you have any interest in the past, essay-writing, philosophy, religion, politics, and the common man as championed by a most unusual man, HOW TO LIVE is your book.

Sarah Bakewell's book on Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) is worthwhile in large part because Montaigne is not as widely read as he deserves to be; her work may help redress that situation. Wisely, she gives readers to understand that they may see themselves in Montaigne's Essays: She understands the narcissism that pervades our culture. It is fascinating - and rather suggestive - that so many people claim to see themselves in the writings of a thoroughgoing skeptic.

Her theme is "how to live" - a subject on which Montaigne is full of insights, though he never presumes to offer advice. In 20 chapters, Ms. Bakewell explores approaches to life derived from Montaigne, such as "Be ordinary and imperfect," "See the world," "Guard your humanity," "Wake from the sleep of habit," "Let life be its own answer," and perhaps most characteristically for Montaigne, "Question everything." If this smacks of the self-help book, don't be deceived. Montaigne is talking about his life, not yours. If you look in his Essays for tips on living, you will not be alone, though his purpose is to describe, not prescribe.

I will not attempt a discussion of Montaigne's Essays here. They have been well reviewed elsewhere. Suffice it to say that he was a learned and yet highly sympathetic member of the French nobility and man of affairs who gave up his public life and duties to think, read, and write. He is the author of insightful, often delightful, essays on all kinds of things - even cannibals.

Ms. Bakewell is more than a casual student of Montaigne and her lively study is more than just a history of his collection of essays. She offers a clear-eyed though necessarily incomplete view of Montaigne's personality, to the extent it can be made out from this remove. She also spends substantial time on Montaigne's experiences with death, for instance, and this may be valuable to modern readers, many of whom, I suspect, would just as soon avoid that subject altogether. Ms. Bakewell brushes in some of the intellectual, historical, religious, and political background and context with which Montaigne was familiar, as by commenting on Stoicism, Epicureanism and Skepticism, e.g. The reader thereby gets a better understanding of the skeptical tradition to which Montaigne was a major contributor. Finally, there are numerous useful and interesting illustrations, even if they are not generally of the best quality. There's even a picture of a bottle of wine made at the estates near Bordeaux over which Montaigne presided. Oenophiles will note the connection between Chateau d' Yquem, where a spectacular sweet wine is made, and a branch of Montaigne's family from which one of his names originated: Eyquem.

I had hoped for a more substantial discussion of Montaigne's longest and perhaps most important essay, "A Defense of Raymond Sebond," also called "An Apology for Raymond Sebond." It is a somewhat confusing piece for a lay reader to confront. Ms. Bakewell gives it short shrift. And although she relies exclusively on the Frame translation, which is excellent, as long as she was preparing a book on Montaigne for the modern reader, she might have commented on other translations, such as the Screech translation, to give us an idea of their respective strengths and weaknesses. I do disagree with another reviewer's somewhat breezy conclusion that Montaigne is "scatter-brained." Montaigne was one of the first exponents of the so-called stream of consciousness and of course part of what makes him so engaging is following that stream around bends, over rapids and through deep pools. Montaigne would scarcely be considered the father of the essay, let alone one of the great writers of the western tradition, if he were merely scatter-brained. Much more recent writers, notably Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, made use of the stream of consciousness. They are not normally accused of being scatter-brained.

Incidentally, it is becoming more common for scholars who want to appeal to a broad audience to put notes at the end of the book, listed by page number, without printing the corresponding numbers in the text. I do not agree that the notes are therefore useless. This practice simultaneously meets the needs of students and scholars, who want the notes, and of general readers who hate being distracted by them. William Lee Miller, a distinguished historian at the University of Virginia, handles his notes in the same way in his excellent study of Lincoln, "President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman."

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