He called them “essays,” meaning “attempts” or “tries.” Into them, he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. A nobleman, public official and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Monatigne, perhaps the first truly modern individual. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy? How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love-such questions arise in most people’s lives. Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
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