A review by m_peacock
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

informative medium-paced

3.5

It's a biography of Montaigne's Essays, giving the context you need to read and enjoy them. You get Montaigne's life, a description of the times in Bordeaux, the political situation in France,... but all within the context of what Montaigne put down in the Essays. It's well-written, with the right level of detail and the right tone. I never thought about actually cracking open the Essays... until now.