The Complete Essays
Michel de Montaigne - Author
M. A. Screech - Translator
M. A. Screech - Introduction by
M. A. Screech - Notes by
ISBN 9780140446043 | 1344 pages | 07 Sep 1993 | Penguin Classics | 5.07 x 7.79in | 18 - AND UP
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‘I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain’ In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and thinking. There he wrote his constantly expanding ‘assays’ inspired by ideas he found in the books of 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. But, above all, Montaigne studied himself as a way of drawing out his own inner nature and that of men and women generally. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature, and an engaging insight into a wise Renaissance mind, which continue to give pleasure and enlightenment to modern readers. With its extensive introduction and notes, M. A. Screech’s edition of Montaigne is widely regarded as the most distinguished of recent times.
Note on the Text The Annotations Note on the Translation Explanation of the Symbols Appendices To the Reader Book I 1. We reach the same end by discrepant means 2. On sadness 3. Our emotions get carried away beyond us 4. How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones 5. Whether the governor of a besieged fortress should go out and parley 6. The hour of parleying is dangerous 7. That our deeds are judged by the intention 8. On idleness 9. On liars 10. On a ready or hesitant delivery 11. On prognostications 12. On constancy 13. Ceremonial at the meeting of kings 14. That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them 15. One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without good reason 16. On punishing cowardice 17. The doings of certain ambassadors 18. On fear 19. That we should not be deemed happy till after our death 20. To philosophize is to learn how to die 21. On the power of the imagination 22. One man's profit is another man's loss 23. On habit: and on never easily changing a traditional law 24. Same design: differing outcomes 25. On schoolmasters' learning 26. On educating children 27. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities 28. On affectionate relationships 29. Nine and twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boëtie 30. On moderation 31. On the Cannibals 32. Judgements on God's ordinances must be embarked upon with prudence 33. On fleeing from pleasures at the cost of one's life 34. Fortune is often found in Reason's train 35. Something lacking in our civil administrations 36. On the custom of wearing clothing 37. On Cato the Younger 38. How we weep and laugh at the same thing 39. On solitude 40. Reflections upon Cicero 41. On not sharing one's fame 42. On the inequality there is between us 43. On sumptuary laws 44. On sleep 45. On the Battle of Dreux 46. On names 47. On the uncertainty of our judgement 48. On war-horses 49. On ancient customs 50. On Democritus and Heraclitus 51. On the vanity of words 52. On the frugality of the Ancients 53. On one of Caesar's sayings 54. On vain cunning devices 55. On smells 56. On prayer 57. On the length of life
Book II
Book III
Index 'A superb edition' - Nicholas Wollaston in the Observer |
