Just Finished Reading: How To Live – A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell (FP: 2010)

I had heard of Michel de Montaigne but the only thing I was confident knowing about him before reading this frankly fascinating volume was that he was French. I knew he was much admired and could have probably dragged up from somewhere the title of his most famous (or infamous depending on your viewpoint) publication simply called Essays. Apart from that I had no real idea who he was, what he said or even when he lived – I have thought the 18th century but was way off as he lived between 1533 and 1592. His great achievement was to write a series of articles about common subjects but to infuse them a seemingly ageless wisdom that has appealed to countless people right up to the present. The main thrust of his enquiries – no matter the title of the essay in question – was the fundamental problem of how to live a good and useful life. Using his childhood experiences of a rather unconventional education programme devised by his free thinking father, the running of a large estate and internationally known vineyard, years in the Civil Service and as advisor to royalty, delicately navigating the very dangerous waters of religious warfare and civil strife, marriage and fatherhood, the loss of friends, family and retainers, a near death experience after an accident as a young man and studies of his beloved cat he distilled his observations through his knowledge of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers to create his own unique brand of wisdom.

Using a similar format to the great man himself, the author examines parts of Montaigne’s life by offering twenty answers to the question of how we should live, with each answer derived from his life and his writing bringing out aspects of both. Some of the answers seem at first to be perverse or obvious. Nothing could be further from the truth. But here they are: Don’t worry about death, Pay attention, Be born, 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 and live with others, Wake up from the sleep habit, Live temperately, Guard your humanity, Do something no one has done before, See the world, Do a good job but not too good a job, Philosophise only by accident, Reflect on everything but regret nothing, Give up control, Be ordinary and imperfect and Let life be its own answer.

Banned by the Catholic Church for 130 years (a recommendation in itself I felt to buy and read his work) and much loved by people like Virginia Woolf (ditto) the Essays do appear on the face of things to be truly timeless. Hailed in his own life time and, mostly, every century since then (although not always in his home country) the author certainly sold me on the idea that this man should be read and reread so as to absorb his unique take on life, the universe and just about everything. Needless to say, when I do finally pick up a copy of Essays I shall be reviewing it here. I hope that I will be as impressed as I’m expecting to be after reading this highly recommended book.

[2015 Reading Challenge: A Book by a Female Author – COMPLETE (4/50)]