About the book
Written during the Second World War and among his final works, Stefan Zweig's biography of Michel de Montaigne doubles as an argument for intellectual freedom, tolerance and humanism. Zweig draws parallels between Montaigne's era, when Europe was split by conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and his own, when fascism and communism threatened the liberal European culture he loved. Montaigne sought to stay apart from the factions of his day, and Zweig, in the same spirit, tried to defend free thought and to argue for peace and compromise. The result is both a portrait of a great mind and a plea for tolerance in a cruel world.
Ryan Holiday said it helped him get through 2017 and suggested it to anyone worn down by bad news and political turmoil. Writer and artist Austin Kleon read it the same year and noted that Zweig wrote it in exile in Brazil during World War II.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
If you’ve been struggling with the onslaught of negative news and political turmoil, start with Montaigne. Why? It’s the biography of man who retreated from the chaos of 16th century France to study himself, written by a man fleeing the chaos of 20th century Europe. [...] This book helped me get through 2017, no question.
Austin Kleon (Writer, artist)
Zweig wrote this before his suicide, while exiled in Brazil during World War II. To get Montaigne, Zweig said, “you should not be too young, too deprived of experience and life’s deceptions, and it is precisely a generation like ours, cast by fate into the cataract of the world’s turmoil, to whom the freedom and consistency of his thought conveys the most precious aid.”
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Often recommended alongside
- How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell (2 shared recommenders)