When I Am Playing With My Cat, How Do I Know She Is Not Playing With Me?
Saul Frampton
When I Am Playing With My Cat, How Do I Know She Is Not Playing With Me?
In the year 1570, at the age of thirty-seven, Michel de Montaigne gave up his job as a magistrate and retired to his château to brood on his own private grief - the deaths of his best friends, his father, his brother, and most recently his first-born child. But finding his mind agitated rather than settled by this idleness, Montaigne began to write, giving birth to the Essays - short prose explorations of an amazing variety of topics. And gradually, over the course of his writing Montaigne began to turn his back upon his stoical pessimism, and engage in a new philosophy of life, in which living is to be embraced in all its sensory, exuberant vitality - the smell of his doublet, the pleasures of friendship, the intelligence of his cat and the flavour of his wine. Saul Frampton offers a celebration of perhaps the most joyful and yet profound of all Renaissance writers, whose work went on to have a huge impact on Shakespeare, and whose writings offer a user's guide to existence even to the present day.
3.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Society, Politics & Philosophy |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
304 |
| RRP |
£16.99 |
| Date of Publication |
January 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0571234578 |
| Publisher |
Faber & Faber |
| |
In the year 1570, at the age of thirty-seven, Michel de Montaigne gave up his job as a magistrate and retired to his château to brood on his own private grief - the deaths of his best friends, his father, his brother, and most recently his first-born child. But finding his mind agitated rather than settled by this idleness, Montaigne began to write, giving birth to the Essays - short prose explorations of an amazing variety of topics. And gradually, over the course of his writing Montaigne began to turn his back upon his stoical pessimism, and engage in a new philosophy of life, in which living is to be embraced in all its sensory, exuberant vitality - the smell of his doublet, the pleasures of friendship, the intelligence of his cat and the flavour of his wine. Saul Frampton offers a celebration of perhaps the most joyful and yet profound of all Renaissance writers, whose work went on to have a huge impact on Shakespeare, and whose writings offer a user's guide to existence even to the present day.
Montaigne and the macaques | Saul Frampton | The Guardian
Reviews
The Sunday Times
Edward King
"Passionately written and full to bursting with digressions and anecdotes, Frampton’s book does an excellent job of bringing Montaigne and his historical context to life. It is this vivid evocation of the time that emerges as the book’s greatest strength."
30/01/2011
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The Evening Standard
David Sexton
"Last January, Sarah Bakewell published a marvellous introduction to Montaigne … Saul Frampton, a philosopher and critic with a doctorate in Renaissance literature from Oxford, obviously spotted this gap in the market too. Alas, his book, which would have been very useful if Bakewell's didn't exist, is a year too late and, sad to say, not quite as good."
20/01/2011
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