EyebrarianPrize winnersGet the app

Books › How to Live

Cover of How to Live

How to Live

A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer

Sarah Bakewell

387 pages

A warm, conversational stroll through the mind of history's most relatable philosopher, offering gentle wisdom for the modern soul.

Where to buyBooks like this

What it feels like

Reading this book feels like pulling up a chair next to a crackling fire with a glass of wine and a brilliantly observant friend. It unfolds at a steady, thoughtful pace, mirroring the meandering, inquisitive nature of its subject's own essays. The atmosphere is deeply intimate and comforting, wrapping the reader in a contemplative warmth that makes sixteenth-century France feel surprisingly relevant to modern life. The prose is elegant yet entirely unpretentious, translating complex philosophical inquiries into accessible, everyday wisdom. It is a book that delights in the messy, contradictory realities of being human. Readers who crave intellectual stimulation without academic dryness will find themselves returning to these pages whenever they need a gentle reminder of how to navigate the uncertainties of life.

Mood
  • contemplative
  • intimate
  • intellectually stimulating
  • comforting
Tone
  • warm
  • conversational
  • inquisitive
  • wry
  • erudite
Pace
steady
Themes
the art of living · self-acceptance · navigating uncertainty · the nature of friendship · mortality and grief
The writing
Accessible and elegant, blending rigorous historical scholarship with the breezy, intimate cadence of a late-night conversation with a brilliant friend.
The arc
Begins as a curious historical exploration and deepens into a profoundly comforting meditation on what it means to be human.
Who it's for
Seekers of gentle wisdom who enjoy literary biographies, accessible philosophy, and historical narratives that speak directly to modern anxieties.
Content notes
  • historical violence
  • grief
  • terminal illness
  • death of a child

About the book

How to get on well with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love--such questions arise in most people's lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honourable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy?

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-92), perhaps the first truly modern individual. A nobleman, public official, and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. 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 dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an, and more than four hundred years later, Montaigne's honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come to him in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment--and in search of themselves.

This book, a spirited and singular biography (and the first full life of Montaigne in English for nearly fifty years), relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing (made to speak only Latin), youthful career and sexual adventures, travels, and friendships with the scholar and poet Etienne de La Boétie and with his adopted 'daughter', Marie de Gournay. And as we read, we also meet his readers--who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, 'how to live?'

Description from Open Library.

Books like How to Live

See why they match