“we must reserve a back room, wholly our own and entirely free, wherein to settle our true liberty, our principal solitude and retreat,” wrote Montaigne in his essay “Of Solitude.” Montaigne’s term for this room—arrière-boutique, or literally “behind the shop”—speaks to the close relationship between busy engagement and quiet withdrawal. In this room, Montaigne added, “we must for the most part entertain ourselves with ourselves.”
