When I Am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know That She Is Not Playing with Me?: Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life [Paperback]

A celebration of Montaigne, the most enjoyable and yet profound of all Renaissance writers.
 
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 the deaths of his best friend, his father, his brother, and his firstborn child. But finding his mind agitated, rather than settled, by idleness, Montaigne began to write, giving birth to the Essays—a series of reflections on life in all its profundity and triviality. And, gradually, over the course of his writing, Montaigne turned from a philosophy of death to a philosophy of life, finding consolation in the most unlikely places—the touch of a hand, the smell of his doublet, the flavor of his wine, and the playfulness of his cat.

“Excellent. . . . Frampton excels is in his sharply intelligent and sharply phrased insights. . . . An elegant work.”
—The Washington Post

“Winning. . . . Perceptive. . . . Frampton tells the story of how history, culture, and personal genius conspired to create a new literary genre—and a literary master for the ages.”
—The Christian Science Monitor

“An inventive exploration. . . . [This book] attests to the enduring fascination of Montaigne’s pieces: The sensibility behind them is at once centuries old and curiously modern.”
—Slate
 
“There can be no better introduction to Montaigne.”
—The Washington Times

“Although they were first published more than four centuries ago, Montaigne’s essays can seem as topical as the morning newspaper. As more than one admirls#