Michel de Montaigne (wiki entry) was, in many ways, the original blogger. He defined, named and popularized the “Essay” - French for the word “an attempt” - a short, subjective discussion of a topic that, ultimately, is about the writer’s thoughts and perceptions more than the topic itself. He picks a topic and explores it as he sees fit - something in our world of blogs and stand-up comics taking twists and turns we take for granted but in the Western really originated with Montaigne.
Montaigne is often referred to, alongside Shakespeare, as the “first modern man” - this is mainly because of his self-aware voice.
In this new book, Sarah Bakewell takes the already-readable Montaigne and makes him that much easier to read. The main themes of his writing are distilled and presented within the historical and biographical context that makes it all come alive.
And Montaigne is a great person to read about. Equal parts harried sit-com dad looking for a bit of time dodging work in his man-cave; wise governmental advisor; and curious Human trying to make sense of it all, Montaigne accepts his flawed, vain Human nature, his “I’m nobody special”-ness and makes a case for the ultimate dignity of the Human who sticks to his principles. He was referred to as a new Skeptic of the Renaissance because he looked to ancient Greek philosophy schools like Skepticism and Epicureanism and Stoicism to help answer questions about how to live a good life…
I found Bakewell’s book to be one of the best I have read in years - the framing of Montaigne for the modern world is incredibly well done and the thoughts of the Master Essayist and Human are stuff that will stay with you. The fact that I immediately went out and got a copy of The Essays which I am now sampling from is a testament to the effectiveness of Bakewell’s book - my whole point to reading her’s was to *avoid *going to the source material, but she made it sound so cool…
Highly recommended.
I suspect that his OP will go nowhere, but I had to get this recommendation out there - if you are the least bit curious about Big Questions, what it means to be Human and how to find your place in the universe, I suspect you’d find this book fascinating.
And for those who, having read the above book (which I fully intend to seek out), wish to explore further the Essays of this marvelous writer I highly recommend the one-volume Penguin edition of The Complete Essays, translated by MA Screech, with copious notes.
Montaigne is one of those writers who will stay with you your whole life. He’s like an old and valued friend, intelligent, amusing, deeply read in the Classics and European history, someone you can settle back and listen to for an hour, on a wealth of different topics, and come away wiser than you were and vastly entertained. (Robert Burton is another such writer for me, the Jacobean author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, another book for life).
Thanks for the post. Bakewell refers to two main late 20th century English translations - the one by Screech you mention and the one by Frame. Since she used quotations from Frame’s translation in her book, I ended up getting that one. I bought a hardcover version (a brick!!) because, well, I love books. But there are copywrite-free downloadable versions, etc…heck it was written 450 years ago!
Thanks for the recommendation, WordMan! (And aldiboronti, even though you conjured up an image of Screech translating Montaigne. And boo hiss to Amazon.com for not carrying the Kindle version of the Penguin edition or any other modern translation.)
I find myself re-reading his stuff on certain subjects every time a particular meme (or, is it trope?) enters media space with some pundit-thinker-provocateur attempt at re-defining a concept that I thought has a definition cast in stone. And it’s always fascinating because it’s like an anchor that you can use while examining the merits of some pundit-thinker-provocateur nouvelle.
And it’ s always funny because if I did not know of Montaigne’s take I would be tempted to take said pundit-thinker-provocateur seriously.
My local library has this book on order, and I have placed an online request for it. I don’t know how long it will take to come in, or how long it will take until my request is next in the queue. I’m looking forward to reading it.
I actually heard the author talking a bit about Montaigne in a Great Lives radio program about him. Because of the title of the book I thought it would a self-help kind of thing and wasn’t that interested, but now I’ll probably give it a try.
I’ve loved Montaigne since an Ethics professor introduced me to the essays in college and have always wanted to read a biography on him. Thanks for the recommendation.
Montaigne is someone I have been circling for years, knowing nothing about him other than he got mentioned within the context of stuff I found interesting. But to be the person to break through, to make the writing about *him *- at a time when that was a huge barrier of, well, manners and mindset - but do so in such an effective manner that the case for self-exploration is made - it’s an incredible feat. And the fact that he consciously casts himself as an embarrassingly fallible human - and discusses base topics and uses silly wordplay and coarse language - it’s just cool. His case for how to manage his worldview is as applicable today as it was in the 1500’s.
There’s no ya at the end, “e” ending words or names usually dont get pronounced, and they certainly dont transform themselves into "a"s.
And the “G” is supposed to be pronounced, that one’s tricky for English speakers. I’m trying to come up with an equivalent in English, the only ones I can think of are pastas names, not very English.
It would be something like MONT - HAINE (the G and the N conflate, so you would be understood if saying it that way. Still, try to put some G into it. That’s the proper way)
Another modern appreciation /consideration of Montaigne. Interesting - hard not to be given the subject matter - but not written in nearly as entertaining a way. Bakewell makes Montaigne seem so vital and relevant; Frampton makes him interesting and ahead of his time, but less accessible. Frampton spends a chapter on Montaigne’s relationship with wine and how that opened him up to different ideas; it also presents him as a proto-foodie, geeking out over the tastes in front of him as he travels. Interesting stuff, but doesn’t get the passionate core of Montaigne’s life philosophy the way that Bakewell does.
Boy I wish the Screech or Frame translation was on Kindle so I could just dip in randomly without lugging a brick of a tome along with me…
