Literary and Philosophical Essays French, German and Italian
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~160,000 words · 742 passages
Cite this work
- APAMichel de Montaigne. (n.d.). Literary and Philosophical Essays French, German and Italian. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/michel-de-montaigne/literary-and-philosophical-essays-french-german-and-italian
- MLAMichel de Montaigne. "Literary and Philosophical Essays French, German and Italian." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/michel-de-montaigne/literary-and-philosophical-essays-french-german-and-italian.
- ChicagoMichel de Montaigne. Literary and Philosophical Essays French, German and Italian. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/michel-de-montaigne/literary-and-philosophical-essays-french-german-and-italian.
What it is about
A selection from Montaigne's 'Essays' within an anthology that gathers French, German and Italian authors: this is not the complete work.
Context and history
That is worth knowing before citing. The 'Essays' are three books and more than a hundred chapters, which Montaigne kept rewriting and enlarging for twenty years, and what is here is a selection made by an editor for a series of world classics. That said, what one reads is Montaigne, and Montaigne is the man who invented a way of writing: to take himself as the object of study without claiming to draw any doctrine from it, to change his mind within a single page and leave both versions standing, and to end each subject by confessing that he does not know enough. His question — 'what do I know?' — leads to a scepticism that does not paralyse but teaches how to live. If the aim is to cite Montaigne, it is worth finding a complete edition and giving book and chapter.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
THAT WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE OF OUR HAPPINESS UNTIL AFTER OUR DEATH THAT TO PHILOSOPHISE IS TO LEARNE How TO DIE OF THE INSTITUTION AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN OF FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKES BY MONTAIGNE MONTAIGNE WHAT IS A CLASSIC? BY CHASLES-AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES BY ERNEST RENAN THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE BY GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING LETTERS UPON THE AESTHETIC EDUCATION OF MAN BY J. C. FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS TRANSITION FROM POPULAR MORAL PHILOSOPHY TO THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS IMMANUEL KANT BYRON AND GOETHE BY GIUSEPPE MAZZINI INTRODUCTORY NOTE Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, the founder of the modern Essay, was born February 28, 1533, at the chateau of Montaigne in Pirigord. He came of a family of wealthy merchants of Bordeaux, and was educated at the College de Guyenne, where he had among his teachers the great Scottish Latinist, George Buchanan. Later he studied law, and held various public offices; but at the age of thirty-eight he retired to his estates, where he lived apart from the civil wars of the time, and devoted himself to study and thought. While he was traveling in Germany and Italy, in 1580-81, he was elected mayor of Bordeaux, and this office he filled for four years. He married in 1565, and had six daughters, only one of whom grew up. The first two books of his "Essays" appeared in 1580; the third in 1588; and four years later he died. These are the main external facts of Montaigne's life: of the man himself the portrait is to be found in his book. "It is myself I portray," he declares; and there is nowhere in literature a volume of self-revelation surpassing his in charm and candor. He is frankly egotistical, yet modest and unpretentious; profoundly wise, yet constantly protesting his ignorance; learned, yet