Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
Author of Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays
About the Author
Michel de Montaigne was born in Chateau de Montaigne, near Bordeaux, France, on February 28, 1533. He received his early education at the College de Guyenne in Bordeaux and studied law at Bordeaux and Toulouse, becoming a counselor of the Court des Aides of Perigueaux, the Bordeaux Parliament and, show more in 1561, at the court of Charles IX. In 1565, Montaigne married Francoise de la Chassaigne. They raised one daughter, with four other children dying in infancy. He lived the life as a country gentleman and traveled extensively through Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Montaigne was a moderate Roman Catholic and an advocate of toleration, acting as an intermediary between Henry of Navarre and the court party. As a result, in 1588, he was arrested by members of the Protestant League and thrown into the Bastille for several hours. His work Essais established the essay as a new literary form and influenced both French and English writers; it was quoted by William Shakespeare and imitated by Francis Bacon. Michel de Montaigne died on September 13, 1592 at his chateau in France. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Michel de Montaigne
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics) (2014) 157 copies
Montaigne: Selected Essays: with La Boétie's Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (Hackett Classics) (2012) 20 copies
SELECTED ESSAYS. The William Hazlitt translation, Revised and edited, with an Introduction, by Blanchard Bates. (1949) 15 copies, 1 review
Montaigne 7 copies
La torre di Montaigne. Le sentenze iscritte sulle travi della biblioteca. Testo originale a fronte (2012) 6 copies
The Essays 6 copies
Ensaios. Que Filosofar É Aprender a Morrer e Outros Ensaios - Coleção L&PM Pocket (Em Portuguese do Brasil) (2016) 6 copies
Essais 1-3.: 3 Bde. 6 copies
The essays: a selection 5 copies
Essais (Tome 2-Livre second) 5 copies
Essayer 5 copies
Om fåfänglighet och andra essayer 5 copies
dai Saggi 5 copies
Essais Extraits I L'Homme 5 copies
Os Pensadores - Montaigne (vol. 2) 4 copies
Selected essays 4 copies
Os Pensadores - Montaigne (vol. 1) 4 copies
Álbum Montaigne 4 copies
Des cannibales, Des coches (Essais) (Bac 2020): suivi du parcours « Notre monde vient d'en découvrir un autre » (2019) 4 copies
Michel de MONTAIGNE: Essays, Vol. 1 4 copies
Michel de MONTAIGNE: Essays, Vol 2 4 copies
Michel de MONTAIGNE: Essays, Vol. 3 4 copies
Essais de montaigne extraits t 2 3 copies
Hayatin Değeri Uzun Yaşanmasinda Değil İyi Yaşanmasindadir: Hayati Dogru Yasama Rehberi (2020) 3 copies
Montaigne über sich selbst : Essais und Reisetagebuch : eine Auswahl in biographischer Folge (2013) 3 copies
Michel de Montaigne. Essais : Texte établi et présenté par Jean Plattard, livre premier (chapitres I à XXV) (1969) 3 copies
Essais, 3 Bde. 3 copies
Om böcker 3 copies
Essais 3 copies
Montaigne: Selected Essays: with La Boétie's Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (Hackett Classics) (2012) 3 copies
Favourite Essays: An Anthology: Montaigne. Swift. Addison. Carlyle. Johnson (Classic Literature with Classical Music) (2009) 3 copies
Páginas escogidas 2 copies
ENSAIOS 2 copies
Viajero de sí mismo 2 copies
Journal de Voyage en Italie. Tome I 2 copies
Próby. T. 2 2 copies
Saggi VOL I 2 copies
Essais, livres troisième, extrait 2 copies
Oeuvres choisies 2 copies
Essaies, 2 vols. Paris, 1836 2 copies
Essays (Floris, ed.) 6 vols. 2 copies
Montaigne. Ensaios, Volume II 2 copies
Gedachten 2 copies
[How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Penguin Little Black Classics)] [Author: Montaigne, Michel de] [February, 2015] (2015) 2 copies
Selected Essays 2 copies
Essays of Michael, seigneur le Montaigne : With marginal notes and quotations of the cited authors 2 copies
The Selected Essays of Montaigne 2 copies
The Great Books Fourth Year Volume Five -- Michel de Montaigne: selections from Essays; William Shakespeare: The Tempest (1956) 2 copies
Опыты 2 copies
Próby. T. 1 2 copies
Gobierno de la voluntad 2 copies
Montaigne ( The essays) 1 copy
Essais [vol 1-3/3] 1 copy
Ensayos Tomo 13 1 copy
Essais livre 3 1 copy
Oeuvres complètes 1 copy
That to Philosophise is to learne how to die (The Complete Harvard Classics, Vol. 32) (KINDLE) 1 copy
Essays (4 or 5) 1 copy
On the Institution and Education of Children (The Complete Harvard Classics, Vol. 32) (KINDLE) 1 copy
Eseuri vol. 1 1 copy
Essais (III) 1 copy
Was weiss ich? : Auswahl der besten Essais — Author — 1 copy
Montaigne Vol. 1-3 1 copy
Essais (extraits) I: l'homme 1 copy
Clássicos Jackson XII 1 copy
Essais, Tome 2 1 copy
Essais, Tome 1 1 copy
Мишель Монтень - Опыты 1 copy
Zinspreuken 1 copy
Essais. Notes de Maurice Rat. 3 volumes. 1958. 3 volumes brochés. 444 578 488 pages. (Littérature, Seizième siècle) (1958) 1 copy
Ensaios III 1 copy
Essais, I, L'Homme 1 copy
Essays 1 copy
Seleção de Ensaios 1 copy
Les Essais, Tome 3 1 copy
Eseuri, vol. I, BPT 1179 1 copy
ENSAYOS 4 volúmenes 1 copy
Saggi scelti 1 copy
Costruisci te stesso 1 copy
Ensaios (selecção) 1 copy
ESSAIS TOME 5 1 copy
LES ESSAIS TOME 1 1 copy
Yol Günlüğü 1 copy
Nuestros Clásicos 1 copy
Essais Tome 2 1 copy
Les Essais. Tm III 1 copy
Sobre a amizade 1 copy
Four Plays 1 copy
The Magic Mountain 1 copy
Montaigne [Opere di] 1 copy
Selected Essays by Montaigne 1 copy
Ensayos. Libro Dos. Vol.1 1 copy
Ensayos Completos (Vol. I) 1 copy
Of experience 1 copy
Sobre a Vaidade 1 copy
Eseuri. Cartea întâi 1 copy
Les Essais (Tomes 1, 2, 3) 1 copy
How to Die 1 copy
Saggi Vol.2 1 copy
Essais, tome 2/3 1 copy
Saggi : 3 voll. 1 copy
Les essais II 1 copy
Essais : extraits 1 copy
Saggi, 2 1 copy
Saggi, 1 1 copy
Essais de Montaigne (Self-Edition). Texte original, accompagné de la traduction en langage de nos jours. EN 4 TOMES (1909) 1 copy
Diccionari Montaigne 1 copy
Ensayos: Libro I 1 copy
Ensaios. Volume II 1 copy
Essais, livre 2 1 copy
Essays Bok 2 Annen bok 1 copy
Essais Livre troisième 1 copy
Essayer i urval 1 copy
Essais: Livre 3, Vol. 2 1 copy
Montaigne Michel de 1 copy
Próby tom III 1 copy
Saggi Volume I 1 copy
Ausgewählte Schriften 1 copy
Michel de Montaigne - Essais 1 copy
Des Cannibales suivi de Des Coches - PROGRAMME NOUVEAU BAC 2021 1ère - Parcours Notre monde vient d'en trouver un autre (2019) 1 copy
Il piacere di vivere: Selezione di saggi scelti e liberamente tradotti da Giovanni Messina (2012) 1 copy
“To the Reader” 1 copy
Essays of Montaigne selected 1 copy
Die Essais 1 copy
Selected Essays 1 copy
Ensayos (III) 1 copy
LE PROMENOIR 1 copy
the essayes and councels civill and morall of francis bacon lord verulam (Everymans Library) (1907) 1 copy
La fame di Venere 1 copy
Esseit©Þ ; Montaigne 1 copy
Essais. Livre Troisieme 1 copy
Les Essais Tome II 1 copy
Οχτώ δοκίμια του Montaigne 1 copy
Ensayos 1, 2 y 3 1 copy
Montaigne Essays III 1 copy
Montaigne Essays II 1 copy
Montaigne Essays I 1 copy
Montaigne II 1 copy
Montaigne I 1 copy
Essais tome IV 1 copy
Selections from Montaigne 1 copy
Oeuvres 1 copy
Próby. T. 5 1 copy
Próby. T. 4 1 copy
Associated Works
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1576) — Author, some editions — 776 copies, 16 reviews
Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the 17th Century to the Present (1994) — Contributor — 482 copies, 1 review
The Sophisticated Cat: A Gathering of Stories, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings About Cats (1992) — Contributor — 112 copies, 1 review
The World of Law, Volumes I-II: The Law in Literature, The Law as Literature (1960) — Contributor — 54 copies
Oogst Der Tijden. keur uit de werken van schrijvers en dichters aller volken en eeuwen (1940) — Contributor — 12 copies
Ode to Boy: An Anthology of Same-Sex Attraction in Literature, Volume One: From Antiquity Through the Eighteenth Century (2014) — Contributor — 3 copies
Translations from Horace, Juvenal and Montaigne : with 2 imaginary conversations — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Montaigne, Michel de
- Legal name
- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de
- Other names
- Montaigne
- Birthdate
- 1533-02-28
- Date of death
- 1592-09-13
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Collège de Guyenne, Bordeaux, France
- Occupations
- essayist
philosopher
aristocrat
lawyer
mayor (of Bordeaux) - Relationships
- La Boétie, Étienne de (friend)
Del Rio, Martin Antoine (cousin)
Gournay, Marie Le Jars de (protege)
Gontran de Poncins (descendant) - Short biography
- Montaigne was one of the great humanists of the French Renaissance era and one of its most influential writers. He's best known for his essays, which not only made this literary genre more popular but also more interesting to the reader.
Montaigne grew up speaking Latin and reading Vergil, Ovid, and Horace on his own. At age 6, he was sent to boarding school, the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux. He may have studied law, but the school is unknown; his father purchased a law office for him in the Court of Périgueux. He met Etienne de La Boétie, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Montaigne retired at age 37 to his father's castle to write. He later received numerous honors from the court of King Charles IX, including the Order of Saint-Michel, and was named a Gentleman of the Ordinary Chamber. He was elected mayor of Bordeaux and served two terms in office. - Nationality
- France
- Birthplace
- Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, France
- Places of residence
- Perigord, France
Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, France
Bordeaux, Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France - Place of death
- Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne, France
- Burial location
- Château de Montaigne
Church of Saint Antoine at Bordeaux
Musée Aquitaine, Faculté des Lettres, Université Bordeaux
Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne parish church (heart) - Associated Place (for map)
- France
Members
Discussions
Montaigne's Essays, one at a time. in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (January 2012)
Reviews
Before reading Montaigne’s Essays, I had the mental image of the author as an introspective recluse, scribbling away in his tower while civil war raged outside his walls. A man who turned his back on society to find inner peace.
Someday, I always thought, I’ll read the book, though the sheer amount of what he wrote was off-putting. “Someday” moved to “soon” after listening to an episode of David Runciman’s Past Present Future podcast. Then, after reading Sarah Bakewell’s How show more to Live, it became, why not now? Even that was nearly a year ago, and I’m coming up for air.
What took me so long? As many others have commented, this is not a page-turner, suited for long sittings, but a book to dip into from time to time. But where to start? I began with the most-famous, frequently anthologized pieces, such as “On Cannibals.” Beyond that? The essay titles are little help, since these are not organized disquisitions devoted to one topic. The innocent and pedantic-sounding “Upon some verses of Virgil,” for example, turns out to be the ruminations of an old man fondly looking back on sex. The penultimate essay, “Physiognomy,” is really about the tragedy of civil war, which makes for poignant reading right now.
Montaigne’s mind roves freely, often in a way by turns illuminating and entertaining. But at times, it just meanders. Gallstones figure markedly in at least two essays. And at times his maxims reminded me of the sententious precepts of Hamlet’s Polonius.
Nevertheless, it is possible to detect an overarching theme in this vast collection. I paused for breath before diving into the lengthy “Apology for Raimond de Sebonde”, alone easily book-length. Rather than an interruption, it seemed, with its plea for tolerance in a time of violent sectarian hatred, a key to the entire work.
Although my original impression of Montaigne wasn’t totally off—there’s certainly a basis for it, particularly in the last years of his life—it wasn’t the whole story. Although he didn’t seek advancement, he faithfully carried out public duties, such as two terms as mayor of Bordeaux. Many examples in his essays are drawn from observation at the royal court.
By the time I reached the final essay, my image of Montaigne was no longer that of a recluse—certainly not the misanthropic kind—but of a gracious host. “I have no other end in this writing, but only to discover myself.” In our time, this sounds like self-absorption. But in Montaigne’s time, both in French and in English, the word “discover” primarily meant to “remove a cover”, to “put on display”. Montaigne’s essays are, in the end, a generous sharing of himself with us. show less
Someday, I always thought, I’ll read the book, though the sheer amount of what he wrote was off-putting. “Someday” moved to “soon” after listening to an episode of David Runciman’s Past Present Future podcast. Then, after reading Sarah Bakewell’s How show more to Live, it became, why not now? Even that was nearly a year ago, and I’m coming up for air.
What took me so long? As many others have commented, this is not a page-turner, suited for long sittings, but a book to dip into from time to time. But where to start? I began with the most-famous, frequently anthologized pieces, such as “On Cannibals.” Beyond that? The essay titles are little help, since these are not organized disquisitions devoted to one topic. The innocent and pedantic-sounding “Upon some verses of Virgil,” for example, turns out to be the ruminations of an old man fondly looking back on sex. The penultimate essay, “Physiognomy,” is really about the tragedy of civil war, which makes for poignant reading right now.
Montaigne’s mind roves freely, often in a way by turns illuminating and entertaining. But at times, it just meanders. Gallstones figure markedly in at least two essays. And at times his maxims reminded me of the sententious precepts of Hamlet’s Polonius.
Nevertheless, it is possible to detect an overarching theme in this vast collection. I paused for breath before diving into the lengthy “Apology for Raimond de Sebonde”, alone easily book-length. Rather than an interruption, it seemed, with its plea for tolerance in a time of violent sectarian hatred, a key to the entire work.
Although my original impression of Montaigne wasn’t totally off—there’s certainly a basis for it, particularly in the last years of his life—it wasn’t the whole story. Although he didn’t seek advancement, he faithfully carried out public duties, such as two terms as mayor of Bordeaux. Many examples in his essays are drawn from observation at the royal court.
By the time I reached the final essay, my image of Montaigne was no longer that of a recluse—certainly not the misanthropic kind—but of a gracious host. “I have no other end in this writing, but only to discover myself.” In our time, this sounds like self-absorption. But in Montaigne’s time, both in French and in English, the word “discover” primarily meant to “remove a cover”, to “put on display”. Montaigne’s essays are, in the end, a generous sharing of himself with us. show less
I don’t have any favourites, just a glowing sensation when I think of Mr Montaigne alone in his study, retired to his nice estate on sufficient funds to allow him to live a life of reading and writing. I also imagine him mincing with complete joy on his hard 16thC timber chair. And he’s right to, because he lived what he thought the best life possible. He died of quinsy, which I read is bad form of tonsillitis (for all age groups) that likely involved some rupture and subsequent show more complications. A complication of living in the 16thC, along with the religious wars and the very efficient way the French Church-state had of quashing dissent - mostly protestants. No one really matched them at that. We should be glad Montaigne somehow negotiated his way through that because a dead Montaigne in a ditch (or up in flames) would serve no use to us, especially since it would’ve happened before he wrote his essays. We should be glad he was a survivor type, not an activist type.
Without him, we may have had a delay in the kind of expansive humanist thinking that gave us essays like “Of the Uncertainty of Our Judgment.” A tolerance that we take for granted today. Try waving a relativist argument to a religious persecutor by quoting Homer from the opening line:
Wide is the range of words, one side and the other.
Michel has his own words too on this subject having taken us through the roundabout discussion using various other classical references of which he has plenty. We come to this:
It is dangerous to attack a man who you have deprived of every other means of escape but that of weapons, for necessity is a violent schoolmistress…
What I like about this essay is the way the very heart of it – our uncertain judgement – with its far-reaching flexible possibilities for discussion and self-reflection - has been encased in a discussion about the judgements required by ancient military leaders from Caesar to Scipio. Such masking is both necessary and clever within the absolutist ideas surrounding the author. Montaigne’s tolerant approach is helped by the classics. If scrutinised, he could always defend his thinking by claiming that he was only pondering the merits of military decisions made centuries ago. I’m reminded how often books set in historical times (to reflect the tyranny or dysfunction of the present age) escape the censors because such narrow minded functionaries are undoubtedly humourless, unread, literalists.
In the essay “Of Three Kinds of Association” we find this:
It is existing, but not living, to keep ourselves bound and obliged by necessity to a single course.
Such an idea has so many ways of applying to how one lives their life. But I can’t help thinking the intolerances of Montaigne’s age drove him to find ways to explore the possibilities of what it is to be human and how to survive in order to continue to have those thoughts.
Life is an uneven, irregular and multiform movement. We are not friends to ourselves, and still less masters, we are slaves, if we follow ourselves incessantly and are so caught up in our inclinations that we cannot depart from them or twist them about.
Of course we can read this different ways. One way is to see it as a personal guide to our own failings and weaknesses that illuminates where our actions lead us, especially when we do not review the path we are on, and the harm it poses to us. How many of us realise too late that we are on a destructive path or when the consequences of our actions are difficult to manage or futile? Montaigne serves us all, by questioning the basis of our poor decisions (in our inflexibility). Yet I always feel excused for the worse of myself; he’s very forgiving. These essays serve as a guide to our psychology and failings, putting us on an improved path. On the other hand, they put a lens on tyranny of the times he lived in (and possibly our own).
I probably cheated. It’s possible I didn’t read all of Montaigne’s complete works over the decade I’ve had the book. Reading Montaigne started with the old Penguin black classics selection that I've owned since, well, since I probably picked it up at the flea market where I got all my books when a teenager. (We call them trash and treasure markets at this latitude south of the equator, but I realise most of my GR friends are further north, summer in my winter and that sort of thing). I dipped into that book. Let’s say I read most of them over time. I learned not to be an absolutist. show less
Without him, we may have had a delay in the kind of expansive humanist thinking that gave us essays like “Of the Uncertainty of Our Judgment.” A tolerance that we take for granted today. Try waving a relativist argument to a religious persecutor by quoting Homer from the opening line:
Wide is the range of words, one side and the other.
Michel has his own words too on this subject having taken us through the roundabout discussion using various other classical references of which he has plenty. We come to this:
It is dangerous to attack a man who you have deprived of every other means of escape but that of weapons, for necessity is a violent schoolmistress…
What I like about this essay is the way the very heart of it – our uncertain judgement – with its far-reaching flexible possibilities for discussion and self-reflection - has been encased in a discussion about the judgements required by ancient military leaders from Caesar to Scipio. Such masking is both necessary and clever within the absolutist ideas surrounding the author. Montaigne’s tolerant approach is helped by the classics. If scrutinised, he could always defend his thinking by claiming that he was only pondering the merits of military decisions made centuries ago. I’m reminded how often books set in historical times (to reflect the tyranny or dysfunction of the present age) escape the censors because such narrow minded functionaries are undoubtedly humourless, unread, literalists.
In the essay “Of Three Kinds of Association” we find this:
It is existing, but not living, to keep ourselves bound and obliged by necessity to a single course.
Such an idea has so many ways of applying to how one lives their life. But I can’t help thinking the intolerances of Montaigne’s age drove him to find ways to explore the possibilities of what it is to be human and how to survive in order to continue to have those thoughts.
Life is an uneven, irregular and multiform movement. We are not friends to ourselves, and still less masters, we are slaves, if we follow ourselves incessantly and are so caught up in our inclinations that we cannot depart from them or twist them about.
Of course we can read this different ways. One way is to see it as a personal guide to our own failings and weaknesses that illuminates where our actions lead us, especially when we do not review the path we are on, and the harm it poses to us. How many of us realise too late that we are on a destructive path or when the consequences of our actions are difficult to manage or futile? Montaigne serves us all, by questioning the basis of our poor decisions (in our inflexibility). Yet I always feel excused for the worse of myself; he’s very forgiving. These essays serve as a guide to our psychology and failings, putting us on an improved path. On the other hand, they put a lens on tyranny of the times he lived in (and possibly our own).
I probably cheated. It’s possible I didn’t read all of Montaigne’s complete works over the decade I’ve had the book. Reading Montaigne started with the old Penguin black classics selection that I've owned since, well, since I probably picked it up at the flea market where I got all my books when a teenager. (We call them trash and treasure markets at this latitude south of the equator, but I realise most of my GR friends are further north, summer in my winter and that sort of thing). I dipped into that book. Let’s say I read most of them over time. I learned not to be an absolutist. show less
I can no longer tolerate reading the ramblings of this contemptible Frenchman. Montaigne isn't a renaissance intellectual by a long shot, he's a remnant of the 14th century man, a smug asshole wallowing in the pitch black murk of the dark ages, and worst of all a complete hypocrite and a bootlicker of the catholic church. Funny how he kept gatekeeping others from reading the Bible and discouraged the publication of vernacular Bible translations while citing biblical verses from a translated show more secondary source in his essays, his style was overly pompous and wordy, but Montaigne made denigrating the excessively ornate style of the humanist poets of his age a predominant subject in his essays, he did not care whether his writings would sound idiotically asinine to his readers, no, Montaigne only cared about churning one absurd string of foolish platitudes after another, he couldn't refrain from writing down one essay without letting self-contradiction seep into the next one, and as a final nail in the coffin, he gratuitously slandered homosexuals and cited the worst instances of historical homoromanticism to justify his atrociously close-minded stance on love in his appalling essay on friendship and romantic love. If I'll ever have the chance of visiting Montaigne's grave, I'd spit on this humongous jerk's tomb and hope I would never be cursed with the misfortune of hearing his name again. Here's one final big duck you to this medieval jackass. show less
[Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays translated and edited with an introduction and notes by M. A. Screech].
[How to Live, A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer] by Sarah Bakewell.
Reading the Complete essays I had to wait a long time before I came across that “How did he know that about me” moment which Sarah Bakewell claims in her book is a feature many readers experience, this was mine:
“As soon as I arrived I spelled out my character faithfully and show more truly, just as I know myself to be – no memory, no concentration, no experience, no drive; no hatred either, no ambition, no covetousness, no ferocity – so that they should be told, and therefore know, what to expect from my service”
(Montaigne, Michel. The Complete Essays (p. 1137). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.)
This quote is in the essay/chapter “ on restraining your will and covers Montaigne’s two periods as Mayor of Bordeaux. It comes from book three page 1,137 out of a total page count of 1,269 pages and so as a reader you have to be pretty keen to read through the whole lot. I was helped by M. A. Screech’s excellent translation that somehow brings the 16th century text alive and readable for 21st century readers. He aids the reader by an excellent main introduction; a heading to each new chapter and over 250 pages of notes.
The essays vary wildly in length for example the first chapter of book 1 “We reach the same end by discrepant means” is four pages long whereas “An Apology for Raymond Sebond” clocks in at nearly 200 pages almost a book in itself. Montaigne was a Renaissance man and so his store of knowledge, his ideas on philosophy were mostly generated by his love for antiquity. The majority of his anecdotes come from classical literature, with many quotes in Latin and Screech translates these for us immediately following the quotation so the flow of the essays is not interrupted. Montaigne spent 20 years ruminating and adding to his work and each edition during his lifetime had amendments (usually additions to the original text) Screech incorporates these into the main body of the text with a symbol (A, A1, B, or C) to denote their origin. This all seems to work pretty smoothly.
There is no substitute to reading the essays themselves, they are a unique experience. Montaigne writes exclusively about himself, but without a hint of pride, boastfulness or grandeur, he is aiming at self knowledge with the belief that if he can get some of it down on paper then he will also be writing about most other people as well, because he believed that the similarities vastly outweighed the differences. From Montaigne we understand that the way people see and feel about issues and about themselves change with age, with new experiences, or even depending on how they felt that particular day, but there is a basic thread running throughout our lives that Montaigne wishes to expose. Perhaps that is why so many readers through the centuries have seen themselves in Montaigne’s essays. Montaigne writes about day to day events, about travel, about education about death, about work, about being in the moment, about sex, about melancholy, about anger and about a natural theology. All the time he sets down how he feels about the subject that is concerning him and links it back to the wisdom (or otherwise) of antiquity. He can be humorous, serious, thoughtful, but never didactic; his search for truth makes his honesty almost painful at times. He exposes himself so that others can see themselves and I think you need a certain amount of courage to do that.
Montaigne’s world seems equally divided between 16th century France and classical Rome and some readers might find too much classicism in the essays, but this grounds the author as a typical renaissance man. A man of his times that can communicate forward to current times. Not to be missed especially with M A Screech’s excellent translation and introductions. 5 stars.
Sarah Bakewell’s [How to Live, A life of Montaigne] is written for contemporary readers almost like an overnight sensation - wham bam thank you mame - This is Montaigne she shouts, don’t miss out - you too will find yourself in my/this book. In her first chapter she nails her colours too the mast:
“Since it is a twenty-first-century book it is inevitably pervaded by a twenty-first-century Montaigne . As one of his favourite adages had it, there is no escaping our perspective: we can walk on our own legs and sit only on our own bum.”
So Bakewell sets about picking out the bits of Montaigne that she thinks will appeal to her 21st century audience, which unsurprisingly misses some of what Montaigne was about.
Having read the essays myself I asked myself the following questions before picking up Sarah Bakewell’s book:
1) Does the book add anything to the reading of the essays.
2) Does it supply any additional information.
3) Is it a substitute for reading Montaigne
4) How accurate is it with reference to the text?
Well lets start with the positives: Bakewell’s book is subtitled A Life of Montaigne and she does fill in some background information. She has good chapters on the religious wars that for most of his life threatened to engulf Montaigne, she tells us about Montaigne's family and private life and how he worked, she tells us about the printing history of the book; its reception at the time and then through the subsequent centuries and so in this respect it answers questions 1) and 2). I found Bakewell’s writing lively and interesting; of course she cannot help but add her own thoughts on Montaigne’s situation but I found nothing too jarring here. She even attempts to provide her readers with a bit of grounding in Hellenistic philosophy and although I found this chapter a little glib it was better than nothing.
So far so good, but then doubts started to creep in, surely she was going to say something more about Montaigne’s classical references, especially after she had told us that Montaigne was made to converse in Latin from his first attempts at speech until he was sent away to school. Surely she was going to “home in” on the near 200 page essay where Montaigne expounds his ideas on a natural theology. It was important enough for him to write such a long chapter, so there should be some commentary from Bakewell. Montaigne had a deep respect for nature in which he saw Gods handiwork, this is an underlying theme throughout the essays and is nailed down in his “Apology for Raymond Sebond. Bakewell rightly highlights Montaigne’s preoccupation with death and his own approach to death, but picks out the chapter where he describes his own near death experience after a hunting accident and makes this a sort of watershed for all subsequent thoughts. Then there is her claim that Montaigne had never been a soldier ………………..
So does Bakewell see her book as a sort of substitute for reading Montaigne’s essays, she never says it is, but I can imagine that many readers will read this book and think that they have read Montaigne. They would be wrong, because reading Bakewells comments on Montaigne would be like reading a commentary on Moby-Dick which claimed the main theme of that book was a mans obsession with killing a white whale. So I cannot recommend this book as a critique of Montaigne and it falls short in being A Life, however it is an entertaining read and if it leads people to dip into the real thing then it cannot be all bad 3.5 stars. show less
[How to Live, A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer] by Sarah Bakewell.
Reading the Complete essays I had to wait a long time before I came across that “How did he know that about me” moment which Sarah Bakewell claims in her book is a feature many readers experience, this was mine:
“As soon as I arrived I spelled out my character faithfully and show more truly, just as I know myself to be – no memory, no concentration, no experience, no drive; no hatred either, no ambition, no covetousness, no ferocity – so that they should be told, and therefore know, what to expect from my service”
(Montaigne, Michel. The Complete Essays (p. 1137). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.)
This quote is in the essay/chapter “ on restraining your will and covers Montaigne’s two periods as Mayor of Bordeaux. It comes from book three page 1,137 out of a total page count of 1,269 pages and so as a reader you have to be pretty keen to read through the whole lot. I was helped by M. A. Screech’s excellent translation that somehow brings the 16th century text alive and readable for 21st century readers. He aids the reader by an excellent main introduction; a heading to each new chapter and over 250 pages of notes.
The essays vary wildly in length for example the first chapter of book 1 “We reach the same end by discrepant means” is four pages long whereas “An Apology for Raymond Sebond” clocks in at nearly 200 pages almost a book in itself. Montaigne was a Renaissance man and so his store of knowledge, his ideas on philosophy were mostly generated by his love for antiquity. The majority of his anecdotes come from classical literature, with many quotes in Latin and Screech translates these for us immediately following the quotation so the flow of the essays is not interrupted. Montaigne spent 20 years ruminating and adding to his work and each edition during his lifetime had amendments (usually additions to the original text) Screech incorporates these into the main body of the text with a symbol (A, A1, B, or C) to denote their origin. This all seems to work pretty smoothly.
There is no substitute to reading the essays themselves, they are a unique experience. Montaigne writes exclusively about himself, but without a hint of pride, boastfulness or grandeur, he is aiming at self knowledge with the belief that if he can get some of it down on paper then he will also be writing about most other people as well, because he believed that the similarities vastly outweighed the differences. From Montaigne we understand that the way people see and feel about issues and about themselves change with age, with new experiences, or even depending on how they felt that particular day, but there is a basic thread running throughout our lives that Montaigne wishes to expose. Perhaps that is why so many readers through the centuries have seen themselves in Montaigne’s essays. Montaigne writes about day to day events, about travel, about education about death, about work, about being in the moment, about sex, about melancholy, about anger and about a natural theology. All the time he sets down how he feels about the subject that is concerning him and links it back to the wisdom (or otherwise) of antiquity. He can be humorous, serious, thoughtful, but never didactic; his search for truth makes his honesty almost painful at times. He exposes himself so that others can see themselves and I think you need a certain amount of courage to do that.
Montaigne’s world seems equally divided between 16th century France and classical Rome and some readers might find too much classicism in the essays, but this grounds the author as a typical renaissance man. A man of his times that can communicate forward to current times. Not to be missed especially with M A Screech’s excellent translation and introductions. 5 stars.
Sarah Bakewell’s [How to Live, A life of Montaigne] is written for contemporary readers almost like an overnight sensation - wham bam thank you mame - This is Montaigne she shouts, don’t miss out - you too will find yourself in my/this book. In her first chapter she nails her colours too the mast:
“Since it is a twenty-first-century book it is inevitably pervaded by a twenty-first-century Montaigne . As one of his favourite adages had it, there is no escaping our perspective: we can walk on our own legs and sit only on our own bum.”
So Bakewell sets about picking out the bits of Montaigne that she thinks will appeal to her 21st century audience, which unsurprisingly misses some of what Montaigne was about.
Having read the essays myself I asked myself the following questions before picking up Sarah Bakewell’s book:
1) Does the book add anything to the reading of the essays.
2) Does it supply any additional information.
3) Is it a substitute for reading Montaigne
4) How accurate is it with reference to the text?
Well lets start with the positives: Bakewell’s book is subtitled A Life of Montaigne and she does fill in some background information. She has good chapters on the religious wars that for most of his life threatened to engulf Montaigne, she tells us about Montaigne's family and private life and how he worked, she tells us about the printing history of the book; its reception at the time and then through the subsequent centuries and so in this respect it answers questions 1) and 2). I found Bakewell’s writing lively and interesting; of course she cannot help but add her own thoughts on Montaigne’s situation but I found nothing too jarring here. She even attempts to provide her readers with a bit of grounding in Hellenistic philosophy and although I found this chapter a little glib it was better than nothing.
So far so good, but then doubts started to creep in, surely she was going to say something more about Montaigne’s classical references, especially after she had told us that Montaigne was made to converse in Latin from his first attempts at speech until he was sent away to school. Surely she was going to “home in” on the near 200 page essay where Montaigne expounds his ideas on a natural theology. It was important enough for him to write such a long chapter, so there should be some commentary from Bakewell. Montaigne had a deep respect for nature in which he saw Gods handiwork, this is an underlying theme throughout the essays and is nailed down in his “Apology for Raymond Sebond. Bakewell rightly highlights Montaigne’s preoccupation with death and his own approach to death, but picks out the chapter where he describes his own near death experience after a hunting accident and makes this a sort of watershed for all subsequent thoughts. Then there is her claim that Montaigne had never been a soldier ………………..
So does Bakewell see her book as a sort of substitute for reading Montaigne’s essays, she never says it is, but I can imagine that many readers will read this book and think that they have read Montaigne. They would be wrong, because reading Bakewells comments on Montaigne would be like reading a commentary on Moby-Dick which claimed the main theme of that book was a mans obsession with killing a white whale. So I cannot recommend this book as a critique of Montaigne and it falls short in being A Life, however it is an entertaining read and if it leads people to dip into the real thing then it cannot be all bad 3.5 stars. show less
Lists
100 (1)
. (1)
A Reading List (1)
Tom's Bookstore (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 586
- Also by
- 23
- Members
- 14,870
- Popularity
- #1,544
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 147
- ISBNs
- 760
- Languages
- 23
- Favorited
- 106
