Montaigne: A Life

Description

One of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau, turning his back on the world, and stoically detaching himself from his violent time

Philippe Desan is the Howard L. Willett Professor in Renaissance Literature and History of Culture at the University of Chicago and the author of many books.

"Philippe Desan, in Montaigne: A Life (Princeton; translated from the French by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal), his immense new biography ... insists that our 'Chateau d'Yquem' Montaigne, Montaigne the befuddled philosopher and sweet-sharp humanist, is an invention, untrue to the original. Our Montaigne was invented only in the early nineteenth century. The Eyquem family, in their day, made no wine at all. They made their fortune in salted fish--and Desan's project is to give us a salty rather than a sweet Montaigne."--Adam Gopnik, New Yorker "The 'Essays,' Montaigne informed his readers, were written for a 'domestic and private' end and not for 'either you or my own glory.' He presented himself 'in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray.' Philippe Desan's Montaigne: A Life is animated by the purpose of detonating this carefully cultivated image. It is an effort at disenchantment. Montaigne's informality and transparency, in Mr. Desan's telling, were rhetorical strategies and triumphs of artifice. Montaigne's exploration of the private self was not a natural impulse but an adjustment required by the defeat of his considerable political ambitions... [Desan] seeks to drag the solitary genius back into his social milieu, exposing his conventionality. Montaigne claimed to have portrayed himself 'naked' to posterity. Mr. Desan removes the last of his garments."--Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal "Desan, an expert on French essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), takes readers on a detailed yet sweeping journey through the world of one of the Renaissance's most important literary figures."--Publishers Weekly "Revisiting the public and private life of the extraordinary humanist in light of religious divisions of the 16th century... [Montaigne: A Life is] a hefty biography."--Kirkus "Desan's biography is full of fascinating details about Montaigne and his world."--Glenn Altschuler, Tulsa World "An elaborate, exhaustive, and frequently brilliant restoration of Montaigne's life."--Dominic Green, National Review