The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne

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s/t: Compromising the Life of the Wisest Man of His Times: His Childhood, Youth, and Prime; His Adventures in LoveEveryone acknowledges the Essays of Michel de Montaigne as one of the glories of civilized thought. But in this volume, Marvin Lowenthal has drawn from his letters, essays, travel writings, and manuscripts to create a biography of his life told in his own words, thereby fulfilling Montaigne s intention of presenting his self-portrait to the world. For it was Montaigne who wrote, My book and I are one, and into his writing he poured the amazing varieties of his perceptions, his unflinching powers of observation and analysis, and his deeply felt love of humanity in all its messy contrariness. Above his desk, on a beam on his ceiling, were inscribed the words nihil humani alieni mihi puto : nothing human is alien to me and nothing was, for into his writing he distilled his tender heart and biting wit, his nonsense and wisdom, his passions and his hates. By collecting and arranging these autobiographical passages into a unified whole, Lowenthal has framed a complete portrait in this rich and rewarding book. All of Montaigne is here: his adventures and love affairs, his marriage, travels, tastes, and opinions. Seldom has so much wit, wisdom, and pure entertainment been packed into a single volume.