How to Live

Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

By: Sarah Bakewell

Narrated by: Davina Porter

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

National Book Critics Circle Award, Biography, 2011

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, perhaps the first recognizably modern individual. A nobleman, public official, and winegrower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them essays, meaning “attempts” or “tries.” He put whatever was in his head into them: 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. The Essays was an instant best seller and, over four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw readers to him. They come in search of companionship, wisdom, and entertainment - and in search of themselves.This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of Montaigne’s life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, his youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted “daughter,” Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readers - who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, “How to live?”

©2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2010 Sarah Bakewell

Critic reviews

“Lively and fascinating . . . How to Live takes its place as the most enjoyable introduction to Montaigne in the English language.” ( Times Literary Supplement)

“Splendidly conceived and exquisitely written . . . enormously absorbing.” ( Sunday Times)

“[Bakewell reveals] one of literature’s enduring figures as an idiosyncratic, humane, and surprisingly modern force.” ( Publishers Weekly)

A wonderful tale of his life and writings.

This book does a lovely job of opening up Montaigne and delving into the life and character that gave birth to the Essays and furthermore lived and breathed and acted in the world in an effort to live well. I now want to go and read the Essays for myself.

Probably one of the best history reads

Great write... great read... great voice... perfect for a mind often and mysteriously overlooked. We all owe our current focus on the individual human experience to Montaigne

The narrator

The overacting by the narrator was really distracting to me. I found her over the top.

Interesting and in parts Inspired.

An interesting and in parts inspired take on Montaigne's essays, life, and times. I liked the Montaigne-inspired structure and the book's many insights, but alas, it still just wasn't Montaigne. I think this would be a good introduction to someone before reading Essays and for me was a good re-visit after I read (it gave me a lot of information about the region and people Montaigne dealt with consistently). But please people, don't read/listen to this to better understand Montaigne, there is a whole book he wrote that helps with that. So, use this book for pre/post Montaigne, but avoid using it as a replacement. Narration was appropriate for book.

Schrodinger or Montaige's cat? You choose…

A great aide to placing Montaigne in context both historical, intellectual and contemporaneously from the ancient to the modern…

Myself, I choose Montaigne'a cat...

how to live ? / how he lived !

all the praise for the book and narration are well deserved
it is much more than a simple review or sample of " the essays "
the book's unique benefit comes from a sly and deeper approach

sarah bakewell tries to answer the question of how to live
to do this she shows us just how michel de montaigne lived
how could 1500's france have given rise to such a modern soul ?

a world of endless religious & political turmoil / concern about a plague
the burden of inherited comfort and position and expectations
a loveless marriage / the death of one's only true male friend

life was clearly too much for montaigne and he retreated
he feared losing his own soul and the essays were his attempt to find it
hello ! / any of this sound familiar to a modern reader ?

how can we find serenity in a world beyond our control ?
can courage and wisdom be found to know where we can make a difference ?
sarah bakewell reaches back 500 years for a very good answer

A meandering masterpiece

Part biography, part analysis, this beautiful address by Bakewell is a thoughtful rethinking and retelling of Montaigne's life that is thorough, insightful, and delightful throughout. I can't decide if this is an easy beach read or a bedtime thinker, but I highly, highly recommend this book

How to live? Read Sarah Bakewells Life of Montaigne, then Montaigne himself.

This marvelous reading, full of thoughtful inflection and enthusiasm, serves as a great introduction to the great 16th century creator of the essay form. Having come to this reading after many years of rereading Montaigne, the fullness of awareness provided by Bakewell’s biography
has deepened my appreciation of the man and his magnum opus.
It would be a wiser and better world were all of humanity to read both How To Live, and its subject’s essays.

A straight biography in a deceptive package

I looked forward to this release from the time this book was first published in 2010. From the reviews I read, I assumed it would be a series of reflections that would draw from both Montaigne's life and his essays. And on the surface, it is. Each chapter takes a theme ("Observe closely") and quotes examples of Montaigne considering or engaging in it. But the bulk of the book is really a straight account of his life, chopped into 20 chapters, that moves steadily from youth to death and often goes into more details about 16th century French religious and political disputes than most listeners are likely to be interested in. Davina Porter is an engaging reader, and there are some memorable passages, but the text often drags. I was hoping for a 4-5 star listen, but for me it was just average.

Wonderful narrator and book.

Davina Porter is a remarkable narrator, reading the text as it it were a novel, adding emphasis in the right places, and demonstrating a confidence in the narration that befits the author’s prose. The book itself is a wonderful introduction to reading Montaigne and helping the reader understand how he’s been viewed and read for 400 years.