When I Am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know That She Is Not Playing with Me?

This delightful introduction to the life and works of Montaigne explains the enduring relevance of this sixteenth-century genius.   Michel Montaigne’s life as an essayist began in a pe­riod of crushing depression brought on by the deaths of a daughter, his brother, his father, and his closest friend. With his country embroiled in a bloody reli­gious war, the French aristocrat withdrew to the tower library of his family estate outside Bordeaux and re­solved to write and to prepare himself for his own death.   Out of Montaigne’s grief came one of the most important literary works in history: Les Essais , his “attempts” to understand his world and life through scholarship and personal reflection. With these writings—which consider subjects as varied as friend­ship, war, travel, cannibalism, and even the  oft-neglected thumb—Montaigne recovered his sense of wonder and curiosity, and his zeal for life. That his work has captivated readers for more than four hun­dred years is a result, as Saul Frampton makes clear, of Montaigne’s irresistible mix of introspection and open-mindedness, an intelligence  that—in our world of confessional memoirs and blogs about the details of daily life—still feels thoroughly modern.   When I Am Playing with My Cat . . . brings us closer to one of the most humane, wise, and enchant­ing writers in the history of Western literature. From the Hardcover edition.