How to Live

Part biography, part self-help, an original, funny and moving portrait of Montaigne, Renaissance nobleman and essayist.How to get on well with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love? How to live?This question obsessed Renaissance nobleman Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-92), who wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. Into these essays he put whatever was in his head- his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog's ears twitched when it was dreaming, events in the appalling civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller, and over four hundred years later, readers still come to him in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment - and in search of themselves.This first full biography of Montaigne in English for nearly fifty years relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored.

Winner of Duff Cooper Memorial Prize 2010 Short-listed for Costa Biography Award 2010

“With this splendidly conceived and exquisitely written double biography - of both Montaigne the man and Montaigne the book - Sarah Bakewell should persuade another generation to fall in love with Montaigne”

With this splendidly conceived and exquisitely written double biography - of both Montaigne the man and Montaigne the book - Sarah Bakewell should persuade another generation to fall in love with Montaigne Sunday Times
How to live is a superb, spirited introduction to the master, and should have its readers rushing straight to the essays themselves -- Adam Thorpe Guardian
Sarah Bakewell has written a marvellously confident and clear introduction to Montaigne...a rare achievement. Sarah Bakewell deserves congratulations for opening Montaigne to new readers so very appealingly Evening Standard
Illuminating and humane book... It's rare to come across a biographer who remains so deliciously fond of her subject... How to Live will delight and illuminate Independent
Bakewell writes with verve. This is an intellectually lively treatment of a Renaissance giant and his world Daily Telegraph

Sarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood, growing up on the \"hippie trail\" through Asia and in Australia. She studied philosophy at the University of Essex, and worked for many years as a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library, London, before becoming a full-time writer. Her books include How to Live- a life of Montaigne, which won the Duff Cooper Prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Prize, and At the Existentialist Cafe, a New York Times Ten Best Books of 2016. She was also among the winners of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. She still has a tendency to wander, but is mostly to be found either in London or in Italy with her wife and their family of dogs and chickens.

'An illuminating and humane book... It's rare to come across a biographer who remains so deliciously fond of her subject' Independent How to get on well with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love? How to live? This question obsessed Renaissance nobleman Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, whose free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience were unlike anything written before. Into these essays he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog's ears twitched when it was dreaming, events in the appalling civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller, and over four hundred years later, readers still come to him in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment - and in search of themselves. This first full biography of Montaigne in English for nearly fifty years relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. 'Bakewell writes with verve. This is an intellectually lively treatment of a Renaissance giant and his world' Daily Telegraph 'Splendidly conceived and exquisitely written... It should persuade another generation to fall in love with Montaigne' Sunday Times 'This welding together of biography and self-help mirrors exactly the project of Montaigne's Essays' Financial Times 'A bright, engaging book that can only enthuse you to read the essays themselves ... Try it and you will make a new, most intimate friend' Daily Mail

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