Overview

In 1572, Montaigne - nobleman, humanist, and thoroughly Renaissance man - retired to the seclusion of his estate in the Dordogne and started to write. From his pen poured a stream of 'essays' - attempts to capture the observations that came to him on an idiosyncratic range of subjects, from ancient customs, cannibals and books to thumbs, war-horses and the wearing of clothes. He made the study of himself the starting point for investigations into how to live, and wrote with a startlingly modern candour about love, grief, friendship, sex and death. His voice, by turns lively, curious, digressive, ironic and moving, is utterly captivating. The Essays feel less like a work of literature and more like an ongoing conversation with a very well-informed friend.

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9798200875160

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Michel de Montaigne (Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne) was born in 1533, the son and heir of Pierre, Seigneur de Montaigne--two previous children having died soon after birth. He was brought up to speak Latin as his mother tongue and always retained a Latin turn of mind. After studying law, he became counselor to the Parlement of Bordeaux. He married in 1565 and in 1571 retired to his lands at Montaigne, where he devoted himself to reading and reflection and to composing his Essays. He loathed the fanaticism and cruelties of the religious wars of the period. He was elected Mayor of Bordeaux twice, a post he held for four years. He died at Montaigne in 1592 while preparing the final, and richest, edition of his Essays. Peter Wickham was born in New Zealand and studied for the theatre at the Rose Bruford College in England. He has worked as an actor in the West End, and in theatres all over the UK and abroad, from Venezuela to Laos. He has performed in television and film, and has written a successful series of introductions to Shakespeare for the BBC World Service. He was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company, where reading short stories and serials started his audiobook career. Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the influential The Compleat Gamester attributed to him.

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