The Essays: A SelectionA survey of one of the giants of Renaissance thought, The Essays: A Selection collects some of Michel de Montaigne's most startling and original works, translated from the French and edited with an introduction and notes by M.A. Screech in Penguin Classics. To overcome a crisis of melancholy after the death of his father, Montaigne withdrew to his country estates and began to write, and in the highly original essays that resulted he discussed themes such as fathers and children, conscience and cowardice, coaches and cannibals, and, above all, himself. On Some Lines of Virgil opens out into a frank discussion of sexuality and makes a revolutionary case for the equality of the sexes. In On Experience he superbly propounds his thoughts on the right way to live, while other essays touch on issues of an age struggling with religious and intellectual strife, with France torn apart by civil war. These diverse subjects are united by Montaigne's distinctive voice - that of a tolerant man, sceptical, humane, often humorous and utterly honest in his pursuit of the truth. M.A. Screech's distinguished translation fully retains the light-hearted and inquiring nature of the essays. In his introduction, he examines Montaigne's life and times, and the remarkable self-portrait that emerges from his works. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1586) studied law and spent a number of years working as a counsellor before devoting his life to reading, writing and reflection. If you enjoyed The Essays: A Selection, you might like Francis Bacon's The Essays, also available in Penguin Classics. |
Contents
To the Reader | 3 |
On idleness | 9 |
On punishing cowardice | 16 |
On educating children | 26 |
3 | 38 |
37 | 53 |
That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our | 74 |
Judgements on Gods ordinances must be embarked upon with | 93 |
On cruelty | 169 |
In defence of Seneca and Plutarch | 186 |
On three good wives | 194 |
On the resemblance of children to their fathers | 202 |
On repenting | 232 |
On three kinds of social intercourse | 247 |
On some lines of Virgil | 260 |
On coaches | 330 |
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Adages Aeneid Amyot ancient Antisthenes Apophthegmata Aristippus Aristotle assay authority beautiful believe better body Bordeaux Catullus Cicero City of God complexion concerned condemned death delight desire Diodorus Siculus Diogenes Laertius doctors drink edition enemy enjoy Epicurus Epist Erasmus Essays everything example father favour fear French give Greek honour Horace human humours illness judge judgement Justus Lipsius killed kind King Latin laws learned less live Lucretius madness Margaret of Navarre Marie de Gournay matter means medicine merely mind Montaigne Montaigne's moral natural never old age once opinions ourselves Ovid pain philosopher Plato pleasure Plutarch tr prayer Quintilian quod reason Roman Satires Seneca Socrates soul Stoic taste teach tell things thought Tiraquellus truth Tusc tutor valour vice Virgil virtue wisdom wise wives women words write youth