Montaigne: A Life

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. Desan is motivated by what he perceives as an overwhelming scholarly focus on Montaigne’s literary innovations, at the expense of sociopolitical context. This is a bold statement that verges on exaggeration. Nonetheless, it makes clear that Desan is as interested in history as biography. In his telling, the Montaigne known to modern writers for popularizing the essay as a genre of expression becomes instead the shrewd politician and statesman familiar to his contemporaries. But Desan does not shy away from Montaigne’s development as a writer, delving into the early childhood and later humanist schooling that instilled in him the curiosity that eventually manifested itself in his greatest works. When Montaigne’s essays are mentioned in a chapter of their own, the emphasis is not on their contents but rather the tense political climate that surrounded their creation. If this book is read in its entirety—which, at nearly 800 pages, is no small task—then Montaigne will be seen less as an isolated essayist than a product of a s pecific, now newly vivid world. (Jan.)