How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

by Sarah Bakewell

1. Q. How to live? A. Don’t worry about death Hanging by the tip of his lips 2. Q. How to live? A. Pay attention Starting to write Stream of consciousness 3. Q. How to live? A. Be born Micheau The experiment 4. Q. How to live? A. Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted Reading Montaigne the slow and forgetful The young Montaigne in troubled times 5. Q. How to live? A. Survive love and loss La Boétie: love and tyranny La Boétie: death and mourning 6. Q. How to live? A. Use little tricks Little tricks and the art of living Montaigne in slavery 7. Q. How to live? A. Question everything All I know is that I know nothing, and I’m not even sure about that Animals and demons A prodigious seduction machine 8. Q. How to live? A. Keep a private room behind the shop Going to it with only one buttock Practical responsibilities 9. Q. How to live? A. Be convivial: live with others A gay and sociable wisdom Openness, mercy, and cruelty 10. Q. How to live? A. Wake from the sleep of habit It all depends on your point of view Noble savages 11. Q. How to live? A. Live temperately Raising and lowering the temperature 12. Q. How to live? A. Guard your humanity Terror Hero 13. Q. How to live? A. Do something no one has done before Baroque best seller 14. Q. How to live? A. See the world Travels 15. Q. How to live? A. Do a good job, but not too good a job Mayor Moral objections Missions and assassinations 16. Q. How to live? A. Philosophize only by accident Fifteen En...