Montaigne: A Life

by Philippe Desan, Steven Rendall (Translator), Lisa Neal (Translator)

Overview

A definitive biography of the great French essayist and thinker

One of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau and stoically detaching himself from his violent times? Philippe Desan overturns this long standing myth by showing that Montaigne was constantly connected to and concerned with realizing his political ambitions—and that the literary and philosophical character of the Essays largely depends on them. Desan shows how Montaigne conceived of each edition of the Essays as an indispensable prerequisite to the next stage of his public career. It was only after his political failure that Montaigne took refuge in literature, and even then it was his political experience that enabled him to find the right tone for his genre. The most comprehensive and authoritative biography of Montaigne yet written, this sweeping narrative offers a fascinating new picture of his life and work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691183008
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	832
Sales rank:	1,134,518
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Philippe Desan is the Howard L. Willett Professor in Renaissance Literature and History of Culture at the University of Chicago and the author of many books.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue xi

Introduction xvii

Questions of Method and the Politics of a Book xix

Part One—Ambitions

1 The Eyquems’ Social Ascension 3

A Family Matter 7

“Nobilibus parentibus” 13

Living Nobly 20

“We Latinized Ourselves” 28

The Balance Sheet of a Humanist Education 37

2 A First Career as a Magistrate (1556–1570) 48

Parlementary Habitus 55

From the Cour des Aides in Périgueux to the Parlement in Bordeaux 67

Michel de Montaigne, Royal Councillor 84

The Religious Question 101

3 La Boétie and Montaigne: Discourse on Servitude and Essay of Allegiance 112

The Letter about La Boétie’s Death 117

La Boétie’s Political Treatises: The Memorandum and the Discourse 123

Voluntary Servitude and Allegiance 133

The Politics of a Friendship 143

4 “Witness My Cannibals”: The Encounter with the Indians of the New World 155

Tupinambas and Tabajaras 159

From Rouen to Bordeaux 167

“Their Warfare Is Wholly Noble and Generous” 175

A “Simulacrum of the Truth” 179

5 The Making of a Gentleman (1570–1580) 183

The Break with the Parlement 185

Montaigne as Editor of La Boétie’s Works 199

Dedicatees Influential at the Court 207

An Inconvenient Publication 217

An Influential Neighbor: The Marquis of Trans 222

Honorific Rewards and Clientelism 232

Montaigne at Work 246

6 The Essais of 1580: Moral, Political, and Military Discourses 254

“A Discourse on My Life and Actions” 256

The First Reader of the Essais 269

“Of the Battle of Gods” 277

An Apology for Sebond or a Justification of Montaigne? 285

A Skeleton in the Closet 299

A Royal Audience and a Military Siege 307

Part Two—Practices

7 The Call of Rome, or How Montaigne Never Became an Ambassador (1580–1581) 319

On Territory “Subject to the Emperor” 321

The Ambassador’s Trade 326

A Montaigne in Spain 351

Montaigne in Rome 357

Paul de Foix and the Suspicion of Heresy 371

Roman Citizen 377

The Essais “Castigated and Brought into Harmony with the Opinions of the Monkish Doctors” 386

The Sociability of the Baths 392

The Travel Journal and the Secretary 401

8 “Messieurs of Bordeaux Elected Me Mayor of Their City” (1581–1585) 408

The Mayor’s Book 412

Bordeaux and Its Administration 422

The Public Welfare 436

A Contested Reelection 444

Manager of the City and “Tender Negotiator” 455

An “Administration . . . without a Mark or a Trace”? 473

9 “Benignity of the Great” and “Public Ruin” (1585–1588) 482

“Through an Extraordinarily Ticklish Part of the Country” 487

Secret Mission 501

“I Buy Printers in Guienne, Elsewhere They Buy Me” 508

Imprisoned in the Bastille 523

“A Girl in Picardy” 530

Observer at the Estates General of Blois 539

“Actum est de Gallia” 545

10 The Marginalization of Montaigne (1588–1592) 549

A Tranquil Life 551

“The Only Book in the World of Its Kind” 566

From History to the Essay: Commynes and Tacitus 580

Socrates or Political Suicide 589

Montaigne’s Death 603

Part Three—Post Mortem

11 Montaigne’s Political Posterity 613

Political Appropriations 614

Censure and Morality 621

Epilogue 631

Abbreviations 635

Notes 637

Bibliography 723

Translations Cited 765

Index 767

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The new standard biography of Montaigne. Phillipe Desan throws new light on Montaigne's rewriting of the Essays through a study of his changing political aspirations."—Peter Mack, University of Warwick

"This biography is thoroughly illuminating and it is difficult to imagine that it could be bettered. It will surely hold the field for decades."—Michael Moriarty, University of Cambridge

"Philippe Desan's biography offers a refreshing corrective to those Lives of Montaigne that have underplayed his political activities and aspirations by presenting his literary activities as belonging to their own autonomous sphere. The book offers some intriguing new interpretations, including a compelling account of the different circumstances that surround—and intentions that may animate—the various editions of the Essays."—Richard Scholar, University of Oxford

Editorial Reviews

09/19/2016
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.)

Publishers Weekly

One of CHOICE’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017

From the Publisher

2016-09-20
Revisiting the public and private life of the extraordinary humanist in light of religious divisions of the 16th century.In this translated work of scholarly minutiae, French Renaissance historian and Montaigne expert Desan (Renaissance Literature and History of Culture/Univ. of Chicago; editor: The Oxford Handbook of Montaigne, 2016, etc.) asserts that readers should not ignore Michel de Montaignes life (1533-1592) as a public official, the details of which shed light on his lifelong literary achievement, the Essays. Indeed, Montaignes act of intimate literary introspection invites critics to delve into his biography, beginning with his assumption of the noble name of Montaigne for the first time in his familys history since his wealthy merchant forebears purchased the Montaigne seigniory in Bordeaux a century before. As the first surviving son, classically educated, a magistrate by profession and then mayor of Bordeaux, like his father, Montaigne had unique ambitions of social ascension during the era of smoldering Catholic-Protestant tensions. He served several kings as well as (Protestant) Henry of Navarre, who would become Henri IV, and he conceived of his writing as history and politics, but the essays would change over time to reflect his gradual withdrawal from public life (he never became an ambassador) and adoption of the life of a gentleman author. Desan shows how Montaigne assumed the mtier of a writer from 1588 onward, literally annotating his previous essays by writing in the margins and altogether inventing a new stylewhat Desan terms more of a memoir than essay. Would his life had been remarkable if he had not written the Essays? No. Would he have been so well-known had not a brilliant young admirer, Marie de Gournay, devoted her life to editing and publishing his evolved essays posthumously? Probably not. Desan delves into these questions and much more in a hefty biography that will appeal most to academics. A dense work to be read in conjunction with the humanists own eloquent writing.

Kirkus Reviews