Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays
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About this ebook
In 1572, Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'essays', inspired by the ideas he found in books from his library and his own experience.
He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. Above all, Montaigne studied himself to find his own inner nature and that of humanity. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature. An insight into a wise Renaissance mind, they continue to engage, enlighten and entertain modern readers.
Born in 1533, Michel de Montaigne studied law and spent a number of years working as a counsellor before devoting his life to reading, writing and reflection. He died in 1586.
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was a French philosopher, essayist, and statesman. Born in Aquitaine at the Château de Montaigne, he was raised in a wealthy and powerful family with Spanish, Portuguese, and Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Educated by tutors from his father’s humanist circle, he went on to study under Latin scholar George Buchanan at the College of Guienne in Bordeaux. After completing a law degree, he was appointed counselor of the Parlement in Bordeaux and from 1561 to 1563 served as a courtier to Charles IX. After retiring from public life in 1871, he began working on his celebrated Essais (1580). Believed to be inspired by the loss of his dear friend Étienne de La Boétie, a prominent humanist and poet of the French Renaissance, the Essais contain Montaigne’s reflections on literature, the classics, philosophy, human nature, and selfhood. Considered a landmark work of pre-Enlightenment French philosophy, Montaigne’s magnum opus both popularized the essay as a literary form and influenced a wide range of Western thinkers, including William Shakespeare, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Reviews for Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays
427 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very high four stars, only let down by the fact that this is a monstrous tome and that some of the essays are far less inspired than others. Some of Montaigne's "discoveries" are such a part of our existence now that they seem mundane, which just goes to show the wit and wisdom of his mind.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Montaigne is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the Western tradition because of his profound understanding of human nature. Reportedly, Shakespeare read and drew on Montaigne's insights. When we think of "Essays" today, it is fortunate to be able to read a biography of the creator of this writing form.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Even if he is the father of the essay, I find him somewhat vain and not completely poignant. However, the last passages of "Of Experience" do bring together some thoughtful points about the meaning of life and he does share some interesting anecdotes throughout -- particularly in reference to Socrates, Alcibiades, and other famous classical figures. Given the times in which he lived and his experiences, he does also found the essay with the perspective of the classics, religion, and modern society. I can see why the French so highly revered him.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Een bonte verzameling overpeinzingen, in een periode dat men zich nog niet zo bloot gaf. Ik ben vooral gecharmeerd door zijn eerlijkheid, recht voor de raap. En helemaal niet hoogdravend. Montaigne observeert het dagelijks leven om hem heen, en vooral zichzelf daarin. « filosoof van het dagdagelijkse ». Het gebruik van de citaten is aanvankelijk storend, maar dat verdwijnt daarna. Historisch is vooral zijn langere essay Apologie voor Raymond Sebond interessant, waarin hij mooi de beperkingen van de rede onderlijnt. Enige minpunt: Montaigne is een beetje de propagandist van de middelmatigheid, allicht in de lijn van het modieuze stoïcisme van zijn tijd.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Expert of oneself becomes expert of life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The most modern, and most lion-hearted, sixteenth-century man I know. I get more pure pleasure out of these "Attempts" than any other essays I can think of, and hope that one day I too will be wise enough to uncomplicatedly espouse a motto like "What do I know?" I think of all my struggles with the nature of truth and the good life, and then I think that in some ways you can throw your Derrida in the garbage and just stick with Montaigne's "the only thing certain is that nothing is certain", and "nothing is su fully believed as that which least is known". And when bad things happen, I think about how I may not be able to govern events, but I can surely govern myself. And that I can get up in the morning and remind myself that life is neither good nor evil, but what I make it. And if you still press me to say why I love him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I am I.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/516th Century French noble retires to his home in later life to wax lyrical on cannibals, the limits of human knowledge, experience, and whatever else occurs to him. Can't really sum up 1300 pages of that, but I'd recommend reading him, perhaps in a selection rather than as a whole, although it was a good tome to take away on a holiday with a bit of travelling. His style is conversational, so it feels like time spent in good company rather than hard work. You can sense the cusp of a new era in his scepticism, but he's also strongly attached to the Catholic church and the existing order - he was writing during the French wars of religion, so that was not a small matter. He was a man of his time and also a decent and interesting guy, and I found plenty of appeal in both.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is I book that I should have read decades ago, but was a little spooked by its length. It was a mistake to wait, as it usually is. Like when you're reading Balthasar Gracian, you feel stoic wisdom jumping out of every page. It was truly a great primer in classical education. This experience taught me that I should not be scared of War and Peace, Remembrance of Things Past, Paideia and Les Miserables that still are in my reading list.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collection of ExperiencesMy first impression in listening this audiobook was that somehow I would not make it. It’s a long book. I didn’t like the style, didn’t appreciate the prose. I do like the multiple quotes of classical writings but that was not enough to engage me. As always, like my experience with audiobooks taught me, I became more attentive to the book as the listening went on. The essays that I like most are the epistemological ones, in which Montaigne exposes his skepticism. Montaigne’s work impressed me because of its openness. In listening to the essays one gets a fair account of Montaigne’s approach to life and knows his ideas about what is a life worth living. This audiobook is about wisdom. Classical wisdom as it was understood in XVI century.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's by my bed on the bedside cabinet. that should indicate to all of you how much of a loved vade mecum this work is. Unparalled.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In essence a late 16th diary of an aristocrat in a France torn by religious wars. It was mostly focused on his thoughts and his opinions in th elater years of his life as he observed his own aging. There were only hints at the chaos around his estates. Incredibly well read on the Roman and Greek Classics which served as his philosophical fodder as he thought about his life and his times in France. No one today could be so intimate with these Classic writing. It is what an educated individual was weaned on. After reading all 1269 pages I understand how his thinking eventually became part of the Enlightenment.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The best translation of Montaigne out there although more than 50 years old--a must-read classic.