How to Live: A Life of Montaigne: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
A life told as twenty answers
Bakewell tells the life of Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth-century French writer, by asking how to live and giving twenty answers drawn from his life and writings.
Each chapter takes one answer, such as paying attention or questioning everything.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
Montaigne invented the essay
Montaigne wrote short pieces exploring his own thoughts and experiences, which he called essays, meaning attempts.
Bakewell shows how his honest self-examination created a new kind of writing. He wrote about everything, from friendship to cannibals.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Don't fear death
After a near-fatal riding accident, Montaigne felt calm rather than terrified.
Bakewell explains how this experience helped him stop worrying about death. Death, he decided, would look after itself when the time came.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
Pay close attention
Montaigne paid careful attention to his own experiences, moods and habits.
Bakewell shows how this attention made ordinary life rich and interesting. Even small sensations became worth noting and exploring in his essays.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
Question everything
Montaigne was sceptical, often asking what do I know.
Bakewell shows how his doubt made him tolerant and open-minded. Uncertainty made him gentle with others and wary of fanaticism in his violent age.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Love and loss shape life
Bakewell describes Montaigne's deep friendship with Étienne de La Boétie, whose early death devastated him.
Writing helped him cope. Friendship was the great love of his life, and its loss shaped his writing.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Read widely and freely
Montaigne loved reading but did not worry about remembering everything.
Bakewell shows how he used books to spark his own thoughts. Books were companions, not masters. He read with pleasure and freedom.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Let life be its own answer
Bakewell concludes that Montaigne's final answer was to live life fully, accepting its imperfections.
His essays still help readers think about how to live. Living well, he suggests, needs no grand system.
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