Montaigne: The Essays

Michel de Montaigne

Jan 1907 · G. P. Putnam's Sons

About this ebook

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne's "Essays" were first published in 1580. In the depth and breadth of subject matter addressed, Socrates dictum appears to provide the guiding principle: "the unexamined life is not worth living." Seldom has a life been examined more thoroughly than that of Montaigne, who famously 'retired' from public life at 38, spending the next ten years sequestered in his library of some 1,500 works - engaged by the passion that came before all other occupations--reading and writing. The wide range of questions, chiefly investigating the reality of the human condition, presents a guide to the quest of self, the well-lived life, and independence of mind. The book presents extracts from Montaigne's "Essays" of shorter length, given the moderate compass of the volume. It introduces the English speaking reader to the inimitable essayist, in hope it will provoke further and deeper reading of this timeless author's work.