How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you lovemdash;such questions arise in most peoplersquo;s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy?This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Monatigne, perhaps the first truly modern individual. A nobleman, public official and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them ldquo;essays,rdquo; meaning ldquo;attemptsrdquo; or ldquo;tries.rdquo; Into them, he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dogrsquo;s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller and, over four hundred years later, Montaignersquo;s honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainmentmdash;and in search of themselves.This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted ldquo;daughter,rdquo; Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readersmdash;who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, ldquo;how to live?rdquo;