Book Review-How to Live or A Life of Montaigne (In One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer) by Sarah Bakewell

I had always been interested in the Essays by Montaigne but have been intimidated by the task of reading the tome. As it turns out, my hesitancy was warranted, as Sarah Bakewell explains in this extraordinary book, as Montaigne apparently continually edited the book during his lifetime, amending the Essays over his entire lifetime. To add further complications, the different editions of the Essays were completed at the discretion of many different publishers, with many varying agendas. The book has also gone through many cycles of popularity, ranging from complete public adoration to banishment, riding on the waves of popular opinion throughout European history. It had also appeared on the Catholic church’s list of banned books at one time. This book approaches the subject of Essays and the author Montaigne from multiple points of departure: it is at once a history of the Essays; a biography of Montaigne, his family, and those who were close to him; a travelogue detailing the places that Montaigne had visited; a history of the Dordogne region and France during Montaigne’s time living there; a concise explanation of the Greek philosophies that inspired Montaigne: Stoicism, Skepticism, and Epicureanism; and finally a work of philosophy which tries to encapsulates Montaigne’s guiding principles of life. It is no wonder that this book has met with critical success: the prose is welcoming to any level of reader, the historical backgrounds that is necessary to understand the story is included in the text, so the reader will not be lost in the narrative due to a lack of supporting information, and the multiple threads of topics have been interwoven skillfully to maximize reader interest. When I first started reading the book, I took it upon myself to glean the philosophical lessons that is presented by Bakewell, and there are plenty, twenty to be exact; but that is the worst way to read this book. It wasn’t until I was well into the book that I proceeded to relax while reading and took in those stories that Bakewell had included as the nuggets of gold to be enjoyed rather than extraneous information that pads the text. Once I came to that realization, I learned to love the style of the book and I was able to allow myself to fall in love with this great story, as well as learn lessons in history in Montagne’s time, philosophy, and history of philosophy. Indeed, it was Bakewell’s skillful weaving of all the multiple threads into the narrative that seduced me into the book. The twenty answers which made up the chapters melted into a natural progression of Montaigne’s story, which made their philosophical lessons even more cogent. I wish now that I were not so dogmatic in my zeal to view the book as solely a work of philosophy, I wish that I were open minded to what Bakewell was trying to do. She was entirely successful in what she had plotted, it was just that I was initially a fool to impose my sense of structure to the book. The lesson is that I needed to let the author lead me through the book the way they want to tell the story. I have learned my lesson and I will willingly let Sarah Bakewell lead me through anything she writes.