How to Live, Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

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Chatto & Windus, 2010 - Biography & Autobiography - 387 pages
This book, a spirited and singular biography (and the first full life 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. It traces his bizarre upbringing (made to speak only Latin), youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Etienne de La Balk and with his adopted 'daughter', Marie de Gournay And, as we read, we also meet his readers [&—] who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, 'how to live?' --Book Jacket.

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About the author (2010)

Sarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood in Europe, Australia and England. After studying at the University of Essex, she wrote fiction and worked in bookshops before becoming Curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Institute Library for the History of Medicine in London. She curated an exhibition with Marina Warner for the Science Museum and catalogues rare book collections for the National Trust. She is the author of The Smart;The English Dane: From King of Iceland to Tasmanian Convict, and the bestselling biography How to Live: A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer. www.sarahbakewell.com

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