In Montaigne: Life Without Law, originally published in French in 2014 and now translated for the first time into English by Paul Seaton, Pierre Manent provides a careful reading of Montaigne’s three-volume work, Essays.

Although Montaigne’s writing resists easy analysis, Montaigne includes seven essays before he even explicitly states the purpose of the Essays. Manent finds in it a subtle unity, and demonstrates both the philosophical depth of Montaigne’s reflections and the distinctive and even radical character of his central ideas.

Manent encompasses Montaigne’s analysis in three terms: virtue, pleasure, and death. As Manent shows, by deploying these and other categories, Montaigne’s Essays present not a philosophical system, but rather a new form of thinking and living, which provides us with a way of engaging in a truly thoughtful life.

What might human life look like without the imposing and even towering presence of the state? In raising this critical question, Montaigne’s Essays makes an important inquiry that remains of great relevance for Europe and other areas of the world alike. In showing the unity of Montaigne’s work, Manent’s study will appeal especially to students and scholars of political theory and philosophical history.

The book is published by University of Notre Dame Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.