{"product_id":"montaigne-9780691167879","title":"Montaigne","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau, turning his back on the world, and stoically detaching himself from his violent time\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Philippe Desan, in Montaigne: A Life (Princeton; translated from the French by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal), his immense new biography ... insists that our 'Chateau d'Yquem' Montaigne, Montaigne the befuddled philosopher and sweet-sharp humanist, is an invention, untrue to the original. Our Montaigne was invented only in the early nineteenth century. The Eyquem family, in their day, made no wine at all. They made their fortune in salted fish--and Desan's project is to give us a salty rather than a sweet Montaigne.\"--Adam Gopnik, New Yorker \"The 'Essays,' Montaigne informed his readers, were written for a 'domestic and private' end and not for 'either you or my own glory.' He presented himself 'in my simple, natural, ordinary fashion, without straining or artifice; for it is myself that I portray.' Philippe Desan's Montaigne: A Life is animated by the purpose of detonating this carefully cultivated image. It is an effort at disenchantment. Montaigne's informality and transparency, in Mr. Desan's telling, were rhetorical strategies and triumphs of artifice. Montaigne's exploration of the private self was not a natural impulse but an adjustment required by the defeat of his considerable political ambitions... [Desan] seeks to drag the solitary genius back into his social milieu, exposing his conventionality. Montaigne claimed to have portrayed himself 'naked' to posterity. Mr. Desan removes the last of his garments.\"--Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal \"Desan, an expert on French essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), takes readers on a detailed yet sweeping journey through the world of one of the Renaissance's most important literary figures.\"--Publishers Weekly \"Revisiting the public and private life of the extraordinary humanist in light of religious divisions of the 16th century... [Montaigne: A Life is] a hefty biography.\"--Kirkus \"Desan's biography is full of fascinating details about Montaigne and his world.\"--Glenn Altschuler, Tulsa World \"An elaborate, exhaustive, and frequently brilliant restoration of Montaigne's life.\"--Dominic Green, National Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments ix  Prologue xi  Introduction xvii  Questions of Method and the Politics of a Book xix  Part One-Ambitions  1 The Eyquems' Social Ascension 3  A Family Matter 7  \"Nobilibus parentibus\" 13  Living Nobly 20  \"We Latinized Ourselves\" 28  The Balance Sheet of a Humanist Education 37  2 A First Career as a Magistrate (1556-1570) 48  Parlementary Habitus 55  From the Cour des Aides in Perigueux to the Parlement in Bordeaux 67  Michel de Montaigne, Royal Councillor 84  The Religious Question 101  3 La Boetie and Montaigne: Discourse on Servitude and Essay of Allegiance 112  The Letter about La Boetie's Death 117  La Boetie's Political Treatises: The Memorandum and the Discourse 123  Voluntary Servitude and Allegiance 133  The Politics of a Friendship 143  4 \"Witness My Cannibals\": The Encounter with the Indians of the New World 155  Tupinambas and Tabajaras 159  From Rouen to Bordeaux 167  \"Their Warfare Is Wholly Noble and Generous\" 175  A \"Simulacrum of the Truth\" 179  5 The Making of a Gentleman (1570-1580) 183  The Break with the Parlement 185  Montaigne as Editor of La Boetie's Works 199  Dedicatees Influential at the Court 207  An Inconvenient Publication 217  An Influential Neighbor: The Marquis of Trans 222  Honorific Rewards and Clientelism 232  Montaigne at Work 246  6 The Essais of 1580: Moral, Political, and Military Discourses 254  \"A Discourse on My Life and Actions\" 256  The First Reader of the Essais 269  \"Of the Battle of Gods\" 277  An Apology for Sebond or a Justification of Montaigne? 285  A Skeleton in the Closet 299  A Royal Audience and a Military Siege 307  Part Two-Practices  7 The Call of Rome, or How Montaigne Never Became an Ambassador (1580-1581) 319  On Territory \"Subject to the Emperor\" 321  The Ambassador's Trade 326  A Montaigne in Spain 351  Montaigne in Rome 357  Paul de Foix and the Suspicion of Heresy 371  Roman Citizen 377  The Essais \"Castigated and Brought into Harmony with the Opinions of the Monkish Doctors\" 386  The Sociability of the Baths 392  The Travel Journal and the Secretary 401  8 \"Messieurs of Bordeaux Elected Me Mayor of Their City\" (1581-1585) 408  The Mayor's Book 412  Bordeaux and Its Administration 422  The Public Welfare 436  A Contested Reelection 444  Manager of the City and \"Tender Negotiator\" 455  An \"Administration ... without a Mark or a Trace\"? 473  9 \"Benignity of the Great\" and \"Public Ruin\" (1585-1588) 482  \"Through an Extraordinarily Ticklish Part of the Country\" 487  Secret Mission 501  \"I Buy Printers in Guienne, Elsewhere They Buy Me\" 508  Imprisoned in the Bastille 523  \"A Girl in Picardy\" 530  Observer at the Estates General of Blois 539  \"Actum est de Gallia\" 545  10 The Marginalization of Montaigne (1588-1592) 549  A Tranquil Life 551  \"The Only Book in the World of Its Kind\" 566  From History to the Essay: Commynes and Tacitus 580  Socrates or Political Suicide 589  Montaigne's Death 603  Part Three-Post Mortem  11 Montaigne's Political Posterity 613  Political Appropriations 614  Censure and Morality 621  Epilogue 631  Abbreviations 635  Notes 637  Bibliography 723  Translations Cited 765  Index 767","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49403821326679,"sku":"9780691167879","price":33.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780691167879.jpg?v=1730484643","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/montaigne-9780691167879","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}