How To Live takes its place as the most enjoyable introduction to Montaigne in the English language.' -The Times Literary Supplement His great subject, after all, was himself.' -Laura Miller, 'As described by Sarah Bakewell in her suavely enlightening How to Live, or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Montaigne is, with Walt Whitman, among the most congenial of literary giants, inclined to shrug over the inevitability of human failings and the last man to accuse anyone of self-absorption. ' one of literature's enduring figures as an idiosyncratic, humane, and surprisingly modern force.' - Publisher's Weekly (starred)

'A bright, genial, and generous introduction to the master's methods.' -Kirkus Reviews How to Live is a great companion to Montaigne's essays, and even a great stand-alone.' - San Francisco Book Review

'This book will have new readers excited to be acquainted to Montaigne's life and ideas, and may even stir their curiosity to read more about the ancient Greek philosophers who influenced his writing. How to Live is a delight.' - The Plain Dealer

It hews close to Montaigne's own preoccupations, especially his playful uncertainty - Bakewell is a stickler for what we can't know. How to Live is a history of ideas told entirely on the ground, never divorced from the people thinking them. 'In How to Live, an affectionate introduction to the author, Bakewell argues that, far from being a dusty old philosopher, Montaigne has never been more relevant-a 16th-century blogger, as she would have it-and so must be read, quite simply, 'in order to live'.Bakewell is a wry and intelligent guide.' - The Daily Beast 'Well, How to Live is a superb book, original, engaging, thorough, ambitious, and wise.' -Nick Hornby, in the November/December 2010 issue of The Believer 'Extraordinary.a miracle of complex, revelatory organization, for as Bakewell moves along she provides a brilliant demonstration of the alchemy of historical viewpoint.' - Boston Globe 'So artful is Bakewell's account of that even skeptical readers may well come to share her admiration.' -The New York Times Book Review Bakewell's new book, How to Live, is a biography, but in the form of a delightful conversation across the centuries.' - The New York Times 'Serious, engaging, and so infectiously in love with its subject that I found myself racing to finish so I could start rereading the Essays themselves.It is hard to imagine a better introduction-or reintroduction-to Montaigne than Bakewell's book.' -Lorin Stein, Harper's Magazine 'This charming biography shuffles incidents from Montaigne's life and essays into twenty thematic chapters.Bakewell clearly relishes the anthropological anecdotes that enliven Montaigne's work, but she handles equally well both his philosophical influences and the readers and interpreters who have guided the reception of the essays.' - The New Yorker

How to live life of montaigne