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Monopolizing the Master
by Michael AneskoHenry James defied posterity to disturb his bones: he was adamant that his legacy be based exclusively on his publications and that his private life and writings remain forever private. Despite this, almost immediately after his death in 1916 an intense struggle began among his family and his literary disciples to control his posthumous reputation, a struggle that was continued by later generations of critics and biographers. Monopolizing the Master gives a blow-by-blow account of this conflict, which aroused intense feelings of jealousy, suspicion, and proprietorship among those who claimed to be the just custodians of James's literary legacy. With an unprecedented amount of new evidence now available, Michael Anesko reveals the remarkable social, political, and sexual intrigue that inspired—and influenced—the deliberate construction of the Legend of the Master.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: A British Intelligence Officer In Three Theatres Of The First World War, 1914-18
by Aubrey HerbertA brilliant British memoir from three different theatres of the First World War; widely regarded as one of the finest written during the early period after the war. Despite being badly short-sighted, the author wished to serve his country with a passion and started off his military carrier as an interpreter. However, it wasn't long before he found himself in the thick of the fighting in 1914. At the forefront, in the confused fighting around Mons as the British turned at bay, he was wounded and captured. In a throwback to earlier days of chivalry, he was exchanged for a German prisoner of equal rank and standing.Out of the frying pan and into the fire of Gallipoli, Herbert writes passionately of the experiences and suffering of his fellow Allied soldiers, but he is characteristically self-depreciating of his own heroic conduct under the shellfire. After the end of the campaign in the Dardanelles, the author was posted out to Mesopotamia as an intelligence officer, ending his military career."Fascinating, straightforward, and very well written, best on Mons and Gallipoli." - p. 120, Edward Lengel, World War I Memories, 2004, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham Maryland, Toronto, Oxford. Author - Herbert, Aubrey, 1880-1923.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London, E. Arnold, 1919.Original Page Count - 251 pages.Illustrations -- 4 maps.
Mons, Anzac and Kut: By an MP (Lieutenant Colonel The Hon Aubrey Herbert MP)
by Edward MelotteAubrey Herbert was one of the most interesting figures of his age. He was twice offered the Albanian throne! Born almost blind, his sight even after surgery precluded him from official military service and he became a diplomat and politician. However in 1914 he attached himself unofficially to the Irish Guards on the outbreak of war on their way to France and was made an honorary Lieutenant. Despite his service overseas in France, the Dardanelles and then Egypt and Iraq, he remained an MP throughout the War. He was briefly captured in the Retreat from Mons and, after recovering from his wounds, he joined the Intelligence Bureau in Egypt before being attached to the New Zealand and Australian Division at Gallipoli. He personally persuaded General Ian Hamilton, the overall Commander, to agree a temporary truce with the Turks to enable the burial of the dead and the recovery of wounded men in no-mans-land. Later in Iraq, his efforts to buy the release of the beleaguered British garrison at Kut were less successful. His extraordinary war experiences brought him into close contact with a wide cast of characters, not least T E Lawrence, Compton McKenzie and leading military and political figures.
Monsieur de Saint-George
by Alain Guédé Gilda M. RobertsThe first full biography of one of the greatest figures of eighteenth-century Europe, known in his time as the "Black Mozart"Virtually forgotten until now, his life is the stuff of legend. Born in 1739 in Guadeloupe to a slave mother and a French noble father, he became the finest swordsman of his age, an insider at the doomed court of Louis XVI, and, most of all, a virtuosic musician. A violinist, he directed the Olympic Society of Concerts, which was considered the finest in Europe in an age of great musicians, including Haydn, from whom he commissioned a symphony, and Mozart, to whom he was often compared. He also became the first Freemason of color, embracing the French Revolution with the belief that it would end the racism against which-despite his illustrious achievements-he struggled his whole life. This is the life of Joseph Bologne, known variously as Monsieur de Saint-George, the "Black Mozart," and, because of his origins, "the American." Alain Guédé offers a fascinating account of this extraordinary individual, whose musical compositions are at long last being revived and whose story will never again be forgotten.
Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French
by John von SothenA hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQAmericans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer.John von Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his mother told of her year spent there as a student. And then, after falling for and marrying a French waitress he met in New York, von Sothen moved to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen walks us through real life in Paris--not only myth-busting our Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad. Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations, Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls it home.
Monsieur Proust
by Céleste Albaret André Aciman Barbara BrayCéleste Albaret was Marcel Proust's housekeeper in his last years, when he retreated from the world to devote himself to In Search of Lost Time. She could imitate his voice to perfection, and Proust himself said to her, "You know everything about me." Her reminiscences of her employer present an intimate picture of the daily life of a great writer who was also a deeply peculiar man, while Madame Albaret herself proves to be a shrewd and engaging companion.
Monsieur Proust's Library
by Anka MuhlsteinReading was so important to Marcel Proust that it sometimes seems he was unable to create a personage without a book in hand. Everybody in his work reads: servants and masters, children and parents, artists and physicians. The more sophisticated characters find it natural to speak in quotations. Proust made literary taste a means of defining personalities and gave literature an actual role to play in his novels. In this wonderfully entertaining book, scholar and biographer Anka Muhlstein, the author of Balzac's Omelette, draws out these themes in Proust's work and life, thus providing not only a friendly introduction to the momentous In Search of Lost Time, but also exciting highlights of some of the finest work in French literature.
The Monsoon Diaries: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing from the ER Frontlines to the Far Reaches of the World
by Calvin D. Sun"There are heroes among us, and Dr. Calvin Sun is one of them. Read this book." -Lisa Ling, journalistThe Monsoon Diaries is the firsthand account of Dr. Calvin Sun, an emergency room doctor who worked tirelessly on the front lines in multiple hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.Drawing upon the lessons he learned from his adventures traveling to more than 190 countries in ten years, as well as from the grief he experienced as a teen when his father died, Dr. Sun shares his journey, from growing up as a young Asian American in New York to his calling first to medical school and then to the open road.He believes that the fight for a better world creates meaning when all feels meaningless, and he hopes that telling his story will help readers reframe this tragic moment in our lifetimes into possibility, with the goal of building a more empathetic society.
Monsoon Diary
by Shoba NarayanIn the tradition of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, a sumptuous, mouth-watering memoir of growing up in India and bridging two cultures in America confirms a central truth: life is lived in the kitchen. In MONSOON DIARY Narayan seamlessly interweaves stories of her life on both sides of the globe with the memorable meals that have punctuated it. Tantalising recipes for potato masala, coconut chutney, sweet idlis (juicy rice and lentil dumplings) and other culinary delights emerge from tales that are as varied as Indian spices: of her childhood in Madras, her college days in America, her arranged marriage to a man she grew to love, and visits to her New York home from her delightfully eccentric family. A loving homage to Indian culture and cuisine, as well as the power of food to break through any barrier, Narayan's memoir is populated with unforgettable characters like Narayan's irrepressible father, the milkman Raju (who names his beloved cows after his wives), a New York city taxi driver who insists his wife prepare a 'proper' Indian meal for a homesick Shoba and the iron-man who daily sets up shop in her front yard, picking up red hot coals in his bare hands. In fact MONSOON DIARY's extended family is so vividly and affectionately detailed that you feel you could drop in for idlis and coffee if you were ever in Madras, Kerala, New York or Florida.
Monster: The Story of a Young Mary Shelley
by M. R. ArnoldA fictionalized autobiography of the woman who wrote Frankenstein. Two centuries ago, a twenty-year-old woman invented science fiction. Her father gave her a better education than any woman of the age could hope for—and made her the victim of ongoing incest. At fifteen, she became involved with one of the greatest poets in England and made love to him on her mother&’s grave. When she was sixteen, she escaped from home by running away for a six-week walking tour of Europe, and shared Percy Bysshe Shelley with her sister. And her mentor, Lord Byron, challenged her to prove she was as good a writer as the best poet-philosophers of the Enlightenment. Both men admired her mind, and both wanted more. She would publish a book that changed the world—and this historical novel imagines her inner life as a woman far ahead of her time.
Monster: Monsters Of Advanced Fighting Fantasy
by Steve JacksonAn account of serial killer Tom Luther that&’s &“one of the best books short of the famous Ann Rule works&” from the New York Times bestselling author (True Crime Book Reviews). On a snowy winter evening in 1982, twenty-one-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator&’s violence had only just begun. After ten years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap. In this gripping new edition of a true crime masterpiece, acclaimed author Steve Jackson recounts the intriguing pursuit and long-awaited conviction of a charismatic, monstrous psychopath, one who remains a suspect in three other crimes—and has never given up hope of escape.Includes sixteen pages of dramatic photosPraise for Steve Jackson &“He writes with both muscle and heart.&” —Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell &“A born storyteller. He makes you sweat . . . and turn the page.&” —Ron Franscell, national bestselling author of Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story
Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
by Sanyika ShakurI have lived in South Central Los Angeles all my life. I grew up on Florence and Normandie. That is part of my territory. I was recruited into the Crips at the ripe old age of eleven. Today I am twenty-nine years old. I am a gang expert-period. There are no other gang experts except participants. Our lives, mores, customs, and philosophies remain as mysterious and untouched as those of any "uncivilized" tribe in Afrika. I have come full circle in my twenty-nine years on this planet, sixteen of those with the Crips. I have pushed people violently out of this existence and have fathered three children. I have felt completely free and have sat in total solitary confinement in San Quentin state prison. I have shot numerous people and have been shot seven times myself. I have been in gunfights in South Central and knife fights in Folsom state prison. Today, I languish at the bottom of one of the strictest maximum-security state prisons in this country. I propose to take my reader through the life and times of my own chilling involvement as a gang member with the Crips. I propose to open my mind as wide as possible to allow my readers the first ever glimpse at South Central from my side of the gun, street, fence, and wall. From my initial attraction and recruitment to my first shooting and my rise to Ghetto Star (ghetto celebrity) status, right up to the South Central rebellion and the truce between the warring factions-the Crips and Bloods. Although no longer aligned with gang or criminal activity, I still draw a great deal of support from this quarter. Come with me then, if you will, down a side street lined with stolen cars and youngsters armed with shotguns and .38 revolvers, lying in wait for the enemy, all members of a small gang. Then return with me five years later as the street is lined with luxury cars, dope dealers, and troops with AK-47 assault weapons, the gang now an army.
Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
by Sanyika ShakurThe classic memoir of life as a Crip, written in solitary confinement: “A shockingly raw, frightening portrait of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesAfter pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name “Monster” for committing acts of brutal violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members.When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a work that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience.
The Monster Loves His Labyrinth
by Charles Simic"Nabokovian in his caustic charm and sexy intelligence, Simic perceives the mythic in the mundane and pinpoints the perpetual suffering that infuses human life with both agony and bliss. . . . And he is the master of juxtaposition, lining up the unlikeliest of pairings and contrasts as he explores the nexuses of madness and prophecy, hell and paradise, lust and death."--Donna Seaman, Booklist"As one reads the pithy, wise, occasionally cranky epigrams and vignettes that fill this volume, there is the definite sense that we are getting a rare glimpse into several decades worth of private journals--and, by extension are privy to the tickings of an accomplished and introspective literary mind."--Rain TaxiWritten over many years, this book is a collection of notebook entries by our current Poet Laureate.Excerpts:Stupidity is the secret spice historians have difficulty identifying in this soup we keep slurping.Ars poetica: trying to make your jailers laugh.American identity is really about having many identities simultaneously. We came to America to escape our old identities, which the multiculturalists now wish to restore to us.Ambiguity is the world's condition. Poetry flirts with ambiguity. As a "picture of reality" it is truer than any other. This doesn't mean that you're supposed to write poems no one understands.The twelve girls in the gospel choir sang as if dogs were biting their asses.What an outrage! This very moment gone forever!
Monster Loyalty
by Jackie Huba"WE IDENTIFY WITH EACH OTHER. I SEE MYSELF IN MY FANS AND MY FANS SEE THEMSELVES IN ME. I CALL THEM LITTLE MONSTERS BECAUSE THEY ARE MY INSPIRATION. ” -LADY GAGA Famous for her avant-garde outfits, over-the-top performances, and addictive dance beats, Lady Gaga is one of the most successful pop musicians of all time. But behind her showmanship lies another achievement: her wildly successful strategy for attracting and keeping insanely loyal fans. She’s one of the most popular social media voices in the world with more than 33 million Twitter followers and 55 million Facebook fans. And she got there by methodically building a grassroots base of what she calls her "Little Monsters”-passionate fans who look to her not just for music but also for joy, inspiration, and a sense of community. In Monster Loyalty marketing expert Jackie Huba explores Gaga’s biography and fan philosophy and isolates the seven lessons any business can learn from her. For instance... Focus on your One Percenters: Lady Gaga is investing today in the audience she hopes to have twenty-five years from now. She spends most of her efforts on just 1 percent of her base, the highly engaged superfans who spread her message. Lead with values: Gaga stands out not just for her music but also for her message that it’s okay to be yourself and to love others for who they are. When you connect with customers beyond just providing a product or service, you create a lasting bond. Give them something to talk about: Whether she’s wearing a meat dress or delivering jaw-dropping performances, Lady Gaga knows what will get people talking. Making your business word-of-mouth-worthy cuts down on advertising costs and spreads buzz faster than anything else. Love her or hate her, you can’t ignore Lady Gaga. And while not all businesses want to stand out the way she does, any business can win big by creating monster loyalty. .
The Monster of Düsseldorf: The Life and Trial of Peter Kürten
by Margaret Seaton WagnerPeter Kürten was the worst serial murderer that Prussia/Germany had encountered. In 1915 to 1929 he wrecked havoc with pyromania, murder, assaults, and other crimes. His story and the trial are here. British spellings of the time (1933) are used
Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever
by Jim DentJim Dent's Monster of the Midway is the story of football's fiercest competitor, the legendary Bronko Nagurski. From his discovery in the middle of a Minnesota field to his 1943 comeback season at Wrigley, from the University of Minnesota to the Hall of Fame, Bronko Nagurksi's life is a story of grit, hard work, passion, and, above all, an unstoppable drive to win.Monster of the Midway recounts Nagurski's unparalleled triumphs during the 1930s and '40s, when the Chicago Bears were the kings of professional football. From 1930, the Bronk's first year, through 1943, his last, the Bears won five NFL titles and played in four other NFL Championship Games. Focusing on Nagurski's 1943 comeback season, and how he miraculously led the Bears to their fourth NFL championship against the backdrop of World War II era Chicago, Jim Dent uncovers the riveting drama of Nagurski's playing days. His efforts were the stuff of legend, and his success in 1943 accomplished in spite of a battered frame, worn-out knees, multiple cracked ribs, and a broken bone in his lower back. While chronicling the drama of the '43 championship chase, Dent also tells of both the Bears' colorful early years and Bronko's improbable rise to fame from the backwoods of northern Minnesota. Woven into the narrative are the sights and smells and sounds of one of the most romantic, flavorful eras of the twentieth century. And laced through it all are stories of legend: Bronko rubbing shoulders with colorful characters like George Halas, Red Grange, Sid Luckman, and Sammy Baugh; Bronko running into (and breaking) the brick wall at Wrigley Field; Bronko winning All-American spots for two positions; Bronko knocking scores of opponents unconscious; and Bronko reaching the heights of football glory and, with rare grace, turning his back on the game after winning his last championship.Rich in unforgettable stories and scenes, this is Jim Dent's account of Bronko Nagurski-arguably the greatest football player who ever lived-and his teammates, the roughest, toughest, rowdiest group of players ever to don leather helmets, and the original Monsters of the Midway.
Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction
by Melanie R. Anderson Lisa KrögerMeet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond. Frankenstein was just the beginning: horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been primary architects of speculative literature of all sorts. And their own life stories are as intriguing as their fiction. Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband’s heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret “Mad Madge” Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era. You’ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today’s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales.Part biography, part reader’s guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories.
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
by Claire DedererA NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" —Vanity Fair • "[Dederer] breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new." —Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is &“part memoir, part treatise, and all treat&” (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer&’s instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.&“Monsters leaves us with Dederer&’s passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us." —The Washington PostA Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Vulture, Elle, Esquire, Kirkus
Monsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes: Essays on Motherhood (Essais Series #16)
by Adrienne GruberMonsters, Martyrs, and Marionettes is a revelatory collection of personal essays that subverts the stereotypes and transcends the platitudes of family life to examine motherhood with blistering insight.Documenting the birth and early life of her three daughters, Adrienne Gruber shares what it really means to use one’s body to bring another life into the world and the lasting ramifications of that act on both parent and child. Each piece peers into the seemingly mundane to show us the mortal and emotional consequences of maternal bonds, placing experiences of “being a mom” within broader contexts—historical, literary, biological, and psychological—to speak to the ugly realities of parenthood often omitted from mainstream conversations.Ultimately, this deeply moving, graceful collection forces us to consider how close we are to death, even in the most average of moments, and how beauty is a necessary celebration amidst the chaos of being alive.
Monsters Of Death Row
by Anthony Gordon Brown Christopher Berry-DeeFrom the cells of Death Row come the chilling, true-life accounts of the most heinous, cruel and depraved killers of modern times. Meet grisly killers such as Bill Joe Benefiel, the 'Superglue Monster', who glued his victims eyes and noses shut, causing them to suffocate. Or Willie Crain, the deviant fisherman, who put his victim into a lobster pot, where it was eaten by sea creatures.Many prisoners on ' the Row' have carried out serial murder, mass murder, spree killing and the desmemberment of bodies - both dead and alive. In these pages are to be found friends who have stabbed, hacked and ever filleted their victims. So meet the 'Dead Men and Women Walking' from the legion of the damned in the most terrifying true crime read ever.
Monstruos como nosotros: Historias de freaks, colosos y prodigios
by Omar López MatoLos freaks siempre fueron explotados por quienes hicieron de suexhibición una inagotable fuente de riquezas. Junto a la narración deestas vidas prodigiosas (que muchas veces inspiraron a escritores ycineastas) se desarrollan las raíces biológicas que condujeron a susingularidad, las distorsiones cromosómicas o genéticas que explican opretenden revelar esta llamada monstruosidad. Nadie puede estar seguro de si Dios juega a los dados con átomos y protones, pero ha organizado una lotería con genes y cromosomas. Por estas páginas desfilarán individuos que, como todos, participaron en este sorteo y perdieron, sembrando al mundo de enanos acondroplásicos, hombres con cola, mujeres barbudas, gordos prodigiosos o monarcas infradotados, en definitiva una serie de lusus naturae o bromas de la naturaleza, como las llamaba Aristóteles con un dejo de ironía. En este libro describimos sus vidas circenses, sus miserables exposiciones o sus majestuosas ridiculeces.
Montaigne: A Life
by Steven Rendall Philippe Desan Lisa NealOne of the most important writers and thinkers of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) helped invent a literary genre that seemed more modern than anything that had come before. But did he do it, as he suggests in his Essays, by retreating to his chateau, turning his back on the world, and stoically detaching himself from his violent times? In this definitive biography, Philippe Desan, one of the world's leading authorities on Montaigne, overturns this longstanding myth by showing that Montaigne was constantly concerned with realizing his political ambitions—and that the literary and philosophical character of the Essays largely depends on them. The most comprehensive and authoritative biography of Montaigne yet written, this sweeping narrative offers a fascinating new picture of his life and work.As Desan shows, Montaigne always considered himself a political figure and he conceived of each edition of the Essays as an indispensable prerequisite to the next stage of his public career. He lived through eight civil wars, successfully lobbied to be raised to the nobility, and served as mayor of Bordeaux, special ambassador, and negotiator between Henry III and Henry of Navarre. It was only toward the very end of Montaigne’s life, after his political failure, that he took refuge in literature. But, even then, it was his political experience that enabled him to find the right tone for his genre.In this essential biography, we discover a new Montaigne—caught up in the events of his time, making no separation between private and public life, and guided by strategy first in his words and silences. Neither candid nor transparent, but also not yielding to the cynicism of his age, this Montaigne lends a new depth to the Montaigne of literary legend.
Montaigne (Pushkin Collection)
by Will Stone Stefan ZweigWritten during the Second World War, Zweig's typically passionate and readable biography of Michel de Montaigne, is also a heartfelt argument for the importance of intellectual freedom, tolerance and humanism. Zweig draws strong parallels between Montaigne's age, when Europe was torn in two by conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his own, in which the twin fanaticisms of Fascism and Communism were on the verge of destroying the pan-continental liberal culture he was born into, and loved dearly. Just as Montaigne sought to remain aloof from the factionalism of his day, so Zweig tried to the last to defend his freedom of thought, and argue for peace and compromise. One of the final works Zweig wrote before his suicide, this is both a brilliantly impassioned portrait of a great mind, and a moving plea for tolerance in a world ruled by cruelty.From the Trade Paperback edition.