All reviews for Montaigne: L'arte di vivere (2010)
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Borrowed this copy from the Castillo house. Reading this book made me glad that Montaigne's "Essays" is one of the few books that made the cut when we culled our books before moving to California. I read parts of it in one of my Core classes at Columbia, and I remember enjoying it, but I wasn't as taken with it at the time as I know Elise was. Bakewell's book was a great reminder that it is absolutely worth picking up again.Having just read a book about Stoicism, and also having been reading a Zen-influenced blog, it's impressive how many of Montaigne's characteristics resemble practices from these traditions: cultivating mindfulness and attention; cultivating acceptance of the world and gaining comfort with relinquishing control; seeing yourself as someone you need to build a relationship with just like anyone else. One of the threads running through Bakewell's book is that people of different eras and different persuasions have seen in Montaigne the things that they want to see--and I guess I am no different from any of them!
(2.8) I was bamboozled at the outset. I thought this was Montaigne's essays with a little commentary. Instead. it's a lot of Commentary and a bit of the Essays. Nevertheless, Bakewell does a fine job of wending her way through Montaigne's life, his essays, and the reaction to his work down through the ages. Her conclusion that the Age's interpretation of Montaigne is more illuminated of the Age than Montaigne is obvious to anyone who's watched all the Star Trek iterations.
Incredibly well written. Fascinating and very enjoyable.