Zweig's highly personal biography of his hero, Michel de Montaigne and a passionate argument for humanity in times of barbarity.
A translation of Zweig's highly personal last work, written during WWII, this is a biography of his hero, Michel de Montaigne, and a passionate argument for humanity in times of barbarity.
"Thanks to Stone's assiduous translation, Zweig's fascinating meditation on the writer in whom he saw himself mirrored appears now for the first time in English. Zweig weaves biographical elements into his study—Montaigne's study of Latin at age four, his retirement from his public duties as a French nobleman at age 38—but the book is more properly an introduction to an endlessly inquisitive thinker who never stopped searching for the truth... This captivating study portrays a writer whose life and work can be summed up by his constant posing of the question, 'How should I live?'"
— Publishers Weekly 'Zweig's accumulated historical and cultural studies remain a body of achievement almost too impressive to take in' -
Clive James'[Pushkin Press's republication of Stefan Zweig's work] has been entirely successful. Zweigmania seems to break out with the publication of each book, with readers discovering his work by word-of-mouth and by accident'
- Guardian'[Zweig's] life and work tell of the perilous flimsiness of our world of security-a message that many insistently deny, but somehow need to hear'
- John Gray, New Statesman
