Summer With Montaigne

Description

A few years ago, Antoine Compagnon was asked to host a radio broadcast, every day for an entire summer, on a formidable subject: Michel de Montaigne. From that experience came this engaging and entertaining book, A Summer with Montaigne. An intelligent and thought-provoking treatise in forty chapters that will introduce readers unfamiliar with Montaigne to his unique brilliance and remind those who already know Montaigne's work of its vitality, force, and enduring timeliness. Compagnon breathes life into the musings of Montaigne, approaching his subject not as the recluse many imagine him to have been, but rather a multi-faceted individual of complex thought and astonishing analytical prowess. Once the mayor of Bordeaux, Montaigne was a committed spirit of his time, advising his powerful contemporaries and always in touch with the questions and concerns of the moment, of which many remain pressing today. Composed over a period of twenty years, Montaigne's Essays deal with timeless themes. From the problems posed by religion, war, power and friendship to humankind's ridiculous weaknesses, Montaigne's Essays remain a moving commentary on what it means to be a human being in any age.

Antoine Compagnon is a Professor of French Literature at College de France, Paris, and the Blanche W. Knopf Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York. Tina Kover is a literary translator whose works include The Black City by Georges Sand, as well as works by Anna Gavalda and Mallock, both published by Europa Editions.

"The clarity of Compagnon's analysis renders this once intimidating French Renaissance man miraculously close." * Elle * "Nothing could be easier to read; these pages are to be savoured like a little glass of pastis in the summer." * Paris Match * "A tribute to a classic author who is still well and truly in touch with the spirit of the times." * ActuaLitte *