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Becoming Montaigne: And Other Dangerous Pastimes / Philosophical Humour / Leacock Medal-winning Author / Essays on Human Nature
Paperback
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ISBN13: 9798270540951
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 5 2025
Pages: 214
Weight: 0.64
Height: 0.49 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 5 2025
Pages: 214
Weight: 0.64
Height: 0.49 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In those inevitable moments of doubt, when the hounds of second thought run down a writer's confidence in the merits of a project, I ask myself: Why would I want to chronicle the internal journey of a man as emphatically dead and white as Michel de Montaigne? Can I not see that my own profile as the author is a literary black hole of age, masculinity and colourlessness from which not even punctuation can escape?
That's how John Levesque describes the challenge facing him in Becoming Montaigne. A winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, Levesque brings all his powers of cheerful doubt to the task of chronicling the 107 steps to patience of Michel de Montaigne, a sixteenth century gentleman philosopher. Levesque uses Montaigne's writings as a mirror to reflect what Montaigne calls the comedy of our existence in the world.
The book intersperses newly translated passages from Montaigne's essays with Levesque's examination of the issues they raise. Topics include prophecy, chance, sadness, fear, education, moderation, the discovery of the Americas, imagination, lying, vanity, solitude, inequality, strange habits, marriage, sex, sleep, smells, prayers, awards, death, glory, friendship, love, malingering, cruelty, repentance, social manners and the disadvantages of high rank.
John Levesque is the author of three novels, Rosseter's Memory, Sometime Soon and Geneva Farewell, and two collections of humour, Waiting for Aquarius and Stranded on the Information Highway. Waiting for Aquarius won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Sometime Soon won the Hamilton Arts Council Award for fiction. Geneva Farewell was published in 2020 and acclaimed by Joseph Kertes as a brilliant, beautiful book.
The book intersperses newly translated passages from Montaigne's essays with Levesque's examination of the issues they raise. Topics include prophecy, chance, sadness, fear, education, moderation, the discovery of the Americas, imagination, lying, vanity, solitude, inequality, strange habits, marriage, sex, sleep, smells, prayers, awards, death, glory, friendship, love, malingering, cruelty, repentance, social manners and the disadvantages of high rank.
John Levesque is the author of three novels, Rosseter's Memory, Sometime Soon and Geneva Farewell, and two collections of humour, Waiting for Aquarius and Stranded on the Information Highway. Waiting for Aquarius won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Sometime Soon won the Hamilton Arts Council Award for fiction. Geneva Farewell was published in 2020 and acclaimed by Joseph Kertes as a brilliant, beautiful book.
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