Montaigne
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3.7 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This classic biography of Michel de Montaigne—the Renaissance philosopher and a founding father of humanism—is a heartfelt argument for the importance of intellectual freedom and tolerance.
Written by one of the 20th century’s most popular authors during WWII, Montaigne is a passionate and readable biography of the great Renaissance humanist. Stefan Zweig draws strong parallels between Montaigne’s age—when Europe was torn in two by conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism—and his own, in which Fascism and Communism were on the verge of destroying the pan-continental liberal culture he was born into and loved dearly. Just as Montaigne sought to remain aloof from the factionalism of his day, so Zweig tried to the last to defend his freedom of thought and argue for peace and compromise.
One of the final works Zweig wrote before his suicide, this is both a brilliantly impassioned portrait of a great mind and a moving plea for tolerance in a world ruled by cruelty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the autumn of 1941, Zweig, a bestselling Austrian-Jewish novelist and biographer who had fled to Brazil to escape the Nazis, discovered a copy of Michel de Montaigne's Essays in a basement of his new house. Over the next few months he committed suicide in February 1942 Zweig immersed himself in Essays and produced this little reflection on the 16th-century man of letters. Thanks to Stone's assiduous translation, Zweig's fascinating meditation on the writer in whom he saw himself mirrored appears now for the first time in English. Zweig weaves biographical elements into his study Montaigne's study of Latin at age four, his retirement from his public duties as a French nobleman at age 38 but the book is more properly an introduction to an endlessly inquisitive thinker who never stopped searching for the truth. Zweig depicts Montaigne as trying throughout his life to "safeguard the deepest region of spirit... from the danger of being sacrificed to the deranged prejudices of others." This captivating study portrays a writer whose life and work can be summed up by his constant posing of the question, "How should I live?"
Customer Reviews
A Kindred Spirit...
Stefan Zweig, a philosophical, literary master in his own right, never fails to inject a youthful joy and tenderness into his interpretations of the past. Taking “olden times” out of their stuffy and dusty packaging, he revives them into relatable, modern wells of adventure and wisdom. “Montaigne” is no exception.
I had never heard of Montaigne prior to reading this book...I was only a fan of the classics and a zealot for everything Zweig. I now look forward to diving headlong into a Montaigne rabbit hole. Hoorah! And, thank you, Stefan. You have blessed me yet again.