ARGONAUT BOOKS

Written during WWII, Stefan Zweig's passionate biography of Michel de Montaigne is also a heartfelt argument for the importance of intellectual freedom, tolerance and humanism. He drew 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. And, just as Montaigne sought to remain aloof from the factionalism of his day, so Zweig tried to the last to defend his f...Read More