When I am Playing With My Cat by Saul Frampton

Montaigne was a highly regarded Renaissance writer who in 1570 chucked up his day job and spent the next ten years working on what became his Essais, a collection of pithy examinations of a wide range of topics.

He was probably led to this by grief at the deaths of friends and family, most notably his first-born child. Indeed he was drawn to contemplate each day a deadly phrase from Lucretius that he had himself scratched on the ceiling of his library/study: “There is no new pleasure to be gained by living longer.” He was able to indulge in reclusion because he was independently wealthy, inherited largely from his herring merchant grandfather, and supported by servants in his Chateau de Montaigne near Bordeaux.

Montaigne’s self-therapy worked, so that over the ten years of thinking and writing he gradually turned away from pessimism and became much more positive, able to engage in life with more enjoyment and enthusiasm. Most of his Essais, published in 1580, are reflections on his own experiences, whether new-found delight in friendships, the taste of his glass of wine, his own personal aromas, or indeed how intelligent his cat might be.

For the final ten years of his life, Montaigne expanded his Essais and wrote his Travel Journal, the account of his Grand Tour, which he undertook partly in search of a cure for his excruciatingly painful kidney stones, a condition sadly also inherited from his grandfather.

Frampton has written this book of philosophy as a celebration of all Montaigne’s writings, which he promotes a little grandly as “a user’s guide to existence.”

He has at least written an introduction to Montaigne’s great work as well as setting it in historical context, showing how it influenced important writers, such as Shakespeare. Frampton’s book stands as a work in its own right and should encourage anyone unfamiliar with Montaigne to read the original.

l The author will be at the Oxford Literary Festival on April 8.