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Essays » (Reprint)

Book cover image of Essays by Michel de Montaigne

Authors: Michel de Montaigne, John M. Cohen (Translator), John M. Cohen
ISBN-13: 9780140178975, ISBN-10: 014017897X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: July 1993
Edition: Reprint

Author Biography: Michel de Montaigne

Book Synopsis

Living at a time of religious strife and the decline of the intellectual optimism that had begun in the Renaissance, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) expressed in his writings both a deep skepticism about human affairs and a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity reflective of the age. His was not a systematic philosophy; rather, he wrote pieces that were attempts at knowledge-essays in understanding, or essais, as he called them in French. He thus inaugurated a new literary genre that proved to be very influential.

Despite his skepticism, Montaigne realized that the intellectual horizon of his day was full of exciting new developments. His essays reflect many interests, plus a refreshing honesty about the frailties of human nature. Montaigne writes about vanity, the value of friendship, "That to Study Philosophy Is to Learn to Die," and a host of other topics.

Filled with insights and keen observations that have inspired later writers as diverse as William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, and Roland Barthes, the Essays of Montaigne should be on the essential reading list of every student, scholar, and book lover.

	Of his task and theme	11
	Of pedantism	19
	Of the institution and education of children; to the Lady Diana of Foix, Countess of Gurson	35
	It is folly to refer truth or falsehood to our sufficiency	85
	Of friendship	91
	Of solitariness	109
	Of the inequality that is between us	125
	Of the inconstancy of our actions	137
	Of drunkenness	147
	Of books	159
	Of cruelty	177
	We taste nothing purely	193
	Of anger and choler	199
	Of profit and honesty	209
	Of repenting	223
	Of three commerces or societies	241
	How one ought to govern his will	257