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What Do I Know?: Essential Essays
A fresh new translation of Michel de Montaigne’s most profound, searching essays, with an introduction from Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose
This gift-worthy collection of 16 essays by “the father of the essay” is a short, accessible introduction to his work, offering a fascinating glimpse inside a great Renaissance mind
“I myself am the subject of my book.” So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays, the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form.
In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal observation to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement.
This new selection of Montaigne’s 16 most ingenious essays appears in a lucid new translation by the prize-winning David Coward. What Do I Know? gives the modern reader profound insight into a great Renaissance mind.
What Do I Know? is divided into 3 sections and
MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE
On Sorrow, On how our Actions are to be judged by the Intention, On Idling, On Liars, That we should not be considered happy until we are dead
ON THE PURSUIT OF REASON
On Fear, To tell true from false, it is folly to rely on our own capacities, How we can cry and laugh at the same thing, On Solitude, On the Uncertainty of our Judgement, On Drunkenness
ON GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNORS
On Cannibals, On the Inequality that exists between us, On Sleep, On our lease of life, On Carriages
This gift-worthy collection of 16 essays by “the father of the essay” is a short, accessible introduction to his work, offering a fascinating glimpse inside a great Renaissance mind
“I myself am the subject of my book.” So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays, the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form.
In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal observation to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement.
This new selection of Montaigne’s 16 most ingenious essays appears in a lucid new translation by the prize-winning David Coward. What Do I Know? gives the modern reader profound insight into a great Renaissance mind.
What Do I Know? is divided into 3 sections and
MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE
On Sorrow, On how our Actions are to be judged by the Intention, On Idling, On Liars, That we should not be considered happy until we are dead
ON THE PURSUIT OF REASON
On Fear, To tell true from false, it is folly to rely on our own capacities, How we can cry and laugh at the same thing, On Solitude, On the Uncertainty of our Judgement, On Drunkenness
ON GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNORS
On Cannibals, On the Inequality that exists between us, On Sleep, On our lease of life, On Carriages
- GenresPhilosophyEssays
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2023
32 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Michel de Montaigne
1,555 books1,542 followersMichel Eyquem de Montaigne (1532-1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, from William Shakespeare to René Descartes, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Stephan Zweig, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a conservative and earnest Catholic but, as a result of his anti-dogmatic cast of mind, he is considered the father, alongside his contemporary and intimate friend Étienne de La Boétie, of the "anti-conformist" tradition in French literature.
In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman then as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that, "I am myself the matter of my book", was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, "Que sais-je?" ("What do I know?").
Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly—his own judgment—makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary nonfiction has found inspiration in Montaigne, and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal storytelling.
In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman then as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that, "I am myself the matter of my book", was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, "Que sais-je?" ("What do I know?").
Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly—his own judgment—makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary nonfiction has found inspiration in Montaigne, and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal storytelling.
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August 23, 2024
I received a review copy of this book from Pushkin Press via Edelweiss for which my thanks.
I had little acquaintance with the writings of Michel de Montaigne until I read Stefan Zweig’s excellent biography a couple of years ago where I found not only that Montaigne’s writings were so very relevant to the current-day world but also that there was much about his personality that resonated with me (especially, locking yourself in your tower to spend your time simply reading). Keen to explore his works since then, I wasn’t sure where to start in his 3 volumes of essays which did appear daunting. Luckily for me, Pushkin Press solved that problem by bringing out this much shorter volume of 16 of these essays of varying lengths published under the title What Do I Know? Essential Essays translated by David Coward.
Reading this selection didn’t only reaffirm that chord that Montaigne’s thoughts struck with me in that bio with much I could relate to but revealed his perceptiveness and wisdom on many aspects as well, issues that even today, many hundred years later, people don’t seem to consider or pay enough heed to.
Centred around the idea of self-enquiry or knowing oneself but in its coverage also extending to a broader insight into humankind and human nature, the essays investigate subjects ranging from sorrow and people’s responses to it (sometimes identical in outcome to reaching pinnacles of joy) to idling, the vices of lying and of drunkenness to solitude and encounters with newly discovered lands and peoples who might be termed ‘barbarians’ but might turn out in their simple and innocent lives to be living better than those seen as ‘civilised’.
Through these, Montaigne evaluates his own self as well, telling us for instance, how he himself is ‘not at all given to such extravagant combustibility [dying of joy or indeed sorrow], for I am naturally hard-headed and, by the daily use and discourse of reason, make my head harder every day’, or that while he felt he ‘could not do [his] mind a greater service than to allow it to sit idle and let it look after itself, to slow down, stop and settle into its own rhythms’, he found instead that it started in him ‘so many half-formed fancies and monstrous fantasies … with no thread to them’ making his ‘mind blush with the shame of it’. Fear is what he fears the most seeing it as ‘more cruel by far than any other adversity that befalls us’.
A thought that in particular resonated was in his examination of ‘tell[ing] true from false’ where he shares how he has changed his early attitude of laughing off or pitying those that believed in things like witchcraft or divination, for
... reason has taught me that rejecting something out of hand as untrue and utterly false is to claim to know the limits and limitations both of the will of God and the power of nature, our Mother. I also learnt that there is no folly in the world greater than to reduce both powers to our level and our capacities. If we call everything beyond the reach of our reason monstrous or miraculous, how many more such manifestations will go on surfacing?
A strong argument for acknowledging our limits and ignorance and being open-minded and receptive. How else, after all, can knowledge be obtained?
Montaigne also comments on the state of things in broader society, including the ‘squalid means used in our century to climb the ladder of success [which] show clearly that its objective is equally squalid and shabby’, equally true 400 years later. To avoid being ‘contaminated’ by being amidst the crowd and ‘cleanse ourselves of the ways and moods of the herd which are within us’, he sees the need to ‘call the mind to heel and return it to our natural temper’, something that can be achieved in cities but is best done in seclusion, away from the crowd. Not too different from the meditation and time away from the madding crowd suggested for one’s well-being today.
Likewise is this acknowledgement of our shabby treatment and disrespect of nature placing human action as somehow ‘superior’,
It is not reasonable that our ingenuity should be held in greater esteem than our great and mighty mother Nature. We have so overloaded the beauty and riches of her handiwork with our interference that we have totally suffocated her.
He is also congnisant of the mistreatment and misinterpretation of ‘other’ peoples (of the newly discovered worlds) who are judged by the ‘rationale of the customs and practices of the country in which we live’, thereby dubbing these others as ‘wild’ or subjecting them to tortures and cruelties, taking advantage of their ignorance for enrichment and resulting in their corruption by the treacherous and avaricious ways of the ‘conquerors’.
The essays draw from examples and stories contemporaneous and historical, including of the Romans and are peppered with quotes from the classics, Cicero, Horace and Seneca among them. The volume is introduced by author YiYun Li who describes herself as a ‘dedicated reader of Montaigne’ whom she returns to time and again—knowledgeable, entertaining and ‘among the best conversation partners one could dream of’.
And having read this collection, I absolutely agree and see myself returning to it and Montaigne too!
I had little acquaintance with the writings of Michel de Montaigne until I read Stefan Zweig’s excellent biography a couple of years ago where I found not only that Montaigne’s writings were so very relevant to the current-day world but also that there was much about his personality that resonated with me (especially, locking yourself in your tower to spend your time simply reading). Keen to explore his works since then, I wasn’t sure where to start in his 3 volumes of essays which did appear daunting. Luckily for me, Pushkin Press solved that problem by bringing out this much shorter volume of 16 of these essays of varying lengths published under the title What Do I Know? Essential Essays translated by David Coward.
Reading this selection didn’t only reaffirm that chord that Montaigne’s thoughts struck with me in that bio with much I could relate to but revealed his perceptiveness and wisdom on many aspects as well, issues that even today, many hundred years later, people don’t seem to consider or pay enough heed to.
Centred around the idea of self-enquiry or knowing oneself but in its coverage also extending to a broader insight into humankind and human nature, the essays investigate subjects ranging from sorrow and people’s responses to it (sometimes identical in outcome to reaching pinnacles of joy) to idling, the vices of lying and of drunkenness to solitude and encounters with newly discovered lands and peoples who might be termed ‘barbarians’ but might turn out in their simple and innocent lives to be living better than those seen as ‘civilised’.
Through these, Montaigne evaluates his own self as well, telling us for instance, how he himself is ‘not at all given to such extravagant combustibility [dying of joy or indeed sorrow], for I am naturally hard-headed and, by the daily use and discourse of reason, make my head harder every day’, or that while he felt he ‘could not do [his] mind a greater service than to allow it to sit idle and let it look after itself, to slow down, stop and settle into its own rhythms’, he found instead that it started in him ‘so many half-formed fancies and monstrous fantasies … with no thread to them’ making his ‘mind blush with the shame of it’. Fear is what he fears the most seeing it as ‘more cruel by far than any other adversity that befalls us’.
A thought that in particular resonated was in his examination of ‘tell[ing] true from false’ where he shares how he has changed his early attitude of laughing off or pitying those that believed in things like witchcraft or divination, for
... reason has taught me that rejecting something out of hand as untrue and utterly false is to claim to know the limits and limitations both of the will of God and the power of nature, our Mother. I also learnt that there is no folly in the world greater than to reduce both powers to our level and our capacities. If we call everything beyond the reach of our reason monstrous or miraculous, how many more such manifestations will go on surfacing?
A strong argument for acknowledging our limits and ignorance and being open-minded and receptive. How else, after all, can knowledge be obtained?
Montaigne also comments on the state of things in broader society, including the ‘squalid means used in our century to climb the ladder of success [which] show clearly that its objective is equally squalid and shabby’, equally true 400 years later. To avoid being ‘contaminated’ by being amidst the crowd and ‘cleanse ourselves of the ways and moods of the herd which are within us’, he sees the need to ‘call the mind to heel and return it to our natural temper’, something that can be achieved in cities but is best done in seclusion, away from the crowd. Not too different from the meditation and time away from the madding crowd suggested for one’s well-being today.
Likewise is this acknowledgement of our shabby treatment and disrespect of nature placing human action as somehow ‘superior’,
It is not reasonable that our ingenuity should be held in greater esteem than our great and mighty mother Nature. We have so overloaded the beauty and riches of her handiwork with our interference that we have totally suffocated her.
He is also congnisant of the mistreatment and misinterpretation of ‘other’ peoples (of the newly discovered worlds) who are judged by the ‘rationale of the customs and practices of the country in which we live’, thereby dubbing these others as ‘wild’ or subjecting them to tortures and cruelties, taking advantage of their ignorance for enrichment and resulting in their corruption by the treacherous and avaricious ways of the ‘conquerors’.
The essays draw from examples and stories contemporaneous and historical, including of the Romans and are peppered with quotes from the classics, Cicero, Horace and Seneca among them. The volume is introduced by author YiYun Li who describes herself as a ‘dedicated reader of Montaigne’ whom she returns to time and again—knowledgeable, entertaining and ‘among the best conversation partners one could dream of’.
And having read this collection, I absolutely agree and see myself returning to it and Montaigne too!
June 14, 2025
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin this is a collection of incredibly erotic, so explicit that my blog posts that have only quoted from the book, without any personal initiative in matters sexual, have been censored, that have been included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read – one previous look at this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... with more than other five notes on Delta of Venus
8 out of 10
We can wonder what is the situation of this book in places like Saudi Arabia, Florida, Iran, where we can suppose that it is not available, given that the tales included are so vivid, intense, imaginative and arousing that this reader took more than a couple of weeks for a work that could be completed in less than a day
There are passages, what am I saying, most of the book has sexual encounters, positions, fantasies, festivals, that ‘blow your mind’, part of that is the imagination of the author – one can wonder about her experience, desires, the writer has to take inspiration from real life, they edit, but it has to have happened…
Maybe not exactly, or all of it to her – she could not have been the dancer in Brazil, who ‘was rouging her sex! For admirers who were not allowed to make a gesture. Her sex was like a giant hothouse flower, larger than any the Baron had ever seen, with abundant, curly hair. She made her round of the boxes and sucked men's penises. There were no women allowed.’ – but it is an intriguing aspect, at least for the under signed
Before I indulge in even more details, innuendo, let me emphasize that this is not some cheap work of pornography, there is tremendous insight within ‘It is strange how the character of a person is reflected in the sexual act -If one is nervous, timid, uneasy, fearful, the sexual act is the same, if one is relaxed, the sexual act is enjoyable’
There is some sort of backlash, I presume, these days, not everywhere around the world, but the elections in America, in our own land, seem to demonstrate that ‘conservatives, far-right people’ are on the ascendent
Abortion has been banned in the US, in many states, and Anais Nin would be anathema there -in those places, Alabama and the like – and to turn to self-criticism, the candidate that came on top at the presidential elections here has far right views that would keep women down, and would banish Delta of Venus and similar books
Last night, we offered the world breaking news, because the Constitutional Court has annulled the first round of the said elections, they have to start from scratch, because that idiot – he says Coca Cola has microchips within, and other such enormities – had illegal support, and was promoted by…Russia on the Chinese TikTok
It will be interesting, let us hope it is not ruinous too, to see what happens, if the fool would jump again into prominent positions – the harm appears to have been done – or else he ends up behind bars, I wish the latter, only he has a following of pithecanthropus, just like Orange Jesus in the US, the role model for such monsters
Back to the Delta: ‘The orgasm never ends. I close my inner lips around his penis. If he does not feel some kind of love, he is impotent…Like an orgy of remembered scenes, a whole world of orgasms and fevers, please be cruel, So... she says bring a handsome man. I want him to take me in front of you, a Russian came…
Marcel wants to put his penis in her mouth, then they have sex at the window…in the Subway, a stranger is touching of her sex, she is frenzied with pleasure and has an orgasm in the subway…a Dancer picked money with her...vulva…Courbet painted a woman's sex and nothing else, in one of his paintings, acclaimed by the critics’
Hence the conclusion that you find almost anything in this book, lesbianism, homosexuality, menage a trois and more – there is a fiesta of sex, nay, there are a few occasions when more than few people engage in intercourse at the same time which brings to mind Charlie aka Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men
At some stage, he gives the definition of an orgy, and that has to include, I forgot, maybe it was five, 3 would be threesome, anyway, let us move on – you have double penetration, exhibitionism, BDSM, but also perversity which makes one (me) think if this is appropriate, back to the Florida, Iran argument, to ban or not?
Lady Chatterley’s Lover https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... has been through this, like so many other books, my absolute favorite, Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, has written against the ban, albeit he had a very bad opinion of the quality of the work, it was the principle of freedom
In one stupendous chef d’oeuvre the author of Lady Chatterley is confused with…Lawrence of Arabia, and that hilarious magnum opus is Belles Lettres Papers, by Charles Simmons, which has a great number of mirthful happenings, and revelations about some writers https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/...
The perversity mentioned above refers in particular to The Hungarian Adventurer, though he is not the only one given to excess, and the part where he is in Rome, in the same Hotel with the Spanish ambassador, who has two daughters, 10 and 12 so the Adventurer is a pedophile! He has Orgasms with them, then he lives with his daughters and now he has even more perverse incest on mind. He has sex with them, which is rape, though they Don't mind, it is statutory rape and worse, then he is teaching them to kiss each other and have sex. It is descent into a hell of perversion – he takes his penis to son's mouth and then the girls abandon the aging Baron…’ there is so much of this in the Bible, what with Sodom and Gomorrah, but still, it is overwhelming
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
8 out of 10
We can wonder what is the situation of this book in places like Saudi Arabia, Florida, Iran, where we can suppose that it is not available, given that the tales included are so vivid, intense, imaginative and arousing that this reader took more than a couple of weeks for a work that could be completed in less than a day
There are passages, what am I saying, most of the book has sexual encounters, positions, fantasies, festivals, that ‘blow your mind’, part of that is the imagination of the author – one can wonder about her experience, desires, the writer has to take inspiration from real life, they edit, but it has to have happened…
Maybe not exactly, or all of it to her – she could not have been the dancer in Brazil, who ‘was rouging her sex! For admirers who were not allowed to make a gesture. Her sex was like a giant hothouse flower, larger than any the Baron had ever seen, with abundant, curly hair. She made her round of the boxes and sucked men's penises. There were no women allowed.’ – but it is an intriguing aspect, at least for the under signed
Before I indulge in even more details, innuendo, let me emphasize that this is not some cheap work of pornography, there is tremendous insight within ‘It is strange how the character of a person is reflected in the sexual act -If one is nervous, timid, uneasy, fearful, the sexual act is the same, if one is relaxed, the sexual act is enjoyable’
There is some sort of backlash, I presume, these days, not everywhere around the world, but the elections in America, in our own land, seem to demonstrate that ‘conservatives, far-right people’ are on the ascendent
Abortion has been banned in the US, in many states, and Anais Nin would be anathema there -in those places, Alabama and the like – and to turn to self-criticism, the candidate that came on top at the presidential elections here has far right views that would keep women down, and would banish Delta of Venus and similar books
Last night, we offered the world breaking news, because the Constitutional Court has annulled the first round of the said elections, they have to start from scratch, because that idiot – he says Coca Cola has microchips within, and other such enormities – had illegal support, and was promoted by…Russia on the Chinese TikTok
It will be interesting, let us hope it is not ruinous too, to see what happens, if the fool would jump again into prominent positions – the harm appears to have been done – or else he ends up behind bars, I wish the latter, only he has a following of pithecanthropus, just like Orange Jesus in the US, the role model for such monsters
Back to the Delta: ‘The orgasm never ends. I close my inner lips around his penis. If he does not feel some kind of love, he is impotent…Like an orgy of remembered scenes, a whole world of orgasms and fevers, please be cruel, So... she says bring a handsome man. I want him to take me in front of you, a Russian came…
Marcel wants to put his penis in her mouth, then they have sex at the window…in the Subway, a stranger is touching of her sex, she is frenzied with pleasure and has an orgasm in the subway…a Dancer picked money with her...vulva…Courbet painted a woman's sex and nothing else, in one of his paintings, acclaimed by the critics’
Hence the conclusion that you find almost anything in this book, lesbianism, homosexuality, menage a trois and more – there is a fiesta of sex, nay, there are a few occasions when more than few people engage in intercourse at the same time which brings to mind Charlie aka Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men
At some stage, he gives the definition of an orgy, and that has to include, I forgot, maybe it was five, 3 would be threesome, anyway, let us move on – you have double penetration, exhibitionism, BDSM, but also perversity which makes one (me) think if this is appropriate, back to the Florida, Iran argument, to ban or not?
Lady Chatterley’s Lover https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... has been through this, like so many other books, my absolute favorite, Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, has written against the ban, albeit he had a very bad opinion of the quality of the work, it was the principle of freedom
In one stupendous chef d’oeuvre the author of Lady Chatterley is confused with…Lawrence of Arabia, and that hilarious magnum opus is Belles Lettres Papers, by Charles Simmons, which has a great number of mirthful happenings, and revelations about some writers https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/...
The perversity mentioned above refers in particular to The Hungarian Adventurer, though he is not the only one given to excess, and the part where he is in Rome, in the same Hotel with the Spanish ambassador, who has two daughters, 10 and 12 so the Adventurer is a pedophile! He has Orgasms with them, then he lives with his daughters and now he has even more perverse incest on mind. He has sex with them, which is rape, though they Don't mind, it is statutory rape and worse, then he is teaching them to kiss each other and have sex. It is descent into a hell of perversion – he takes his penis to son's mouth and then the girls abandon the aging Baron…’ there is so much of this in the Bible, what with Sodom and Gomorrah, but still, it is overwhelming
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
September 20, 2023
Yiyun Li and i don’t have to agree on Everything
September 20, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Steerforth & Pushkin Press for an advance copy of this collection of essays, really some of the first essays about life, love, understanding one's self and why people do what they do.
As like many I kind of long to lock myself up somewhere, not have to deal with 99.9999% of the human race, read my books and just enjoy the silence. If given ten years I doubt I would come to great ideas or conclusions about the human race. I would probably be annoyed someone was bothering me after ten years. Michel de Montaigne was different. Not only did he lock himself away in contemplation of his own life, follies, and fancies, Montaigne wrote about them in ways that even hundreds of years later still speak to us. About life, our place in it, and what we should expect from ourselves, and what many in the world settle for. What Do I Know?: Essential Essays by Michel de Montaigne offers a new translation of classic works from the writer who developed the essay while thinking about his own past and actions, and what he learned from them.
Michel de Montaigne was born into wealth, herring wealth actually, in 1533, in France. Montaigne received an excellent education, but not much is known about his youth or his family life, his father being the subject of a few essays, his mother only mentioned a few times. Montaigne became a stateman, a trusted man in court, known both for his writing and winning many honors, which it seemed meant little to him. Montaigne had a friend, a poet whose company he enjoyed, who died young which might have had an effect on Montaigne and how he saw the world. At the age of 38, Montaigne was growing tired of the court and went to his family estate, which he had just inherited, where he was nearly killed in a riding accident. This also might have had an effect on him, death coming close, but taking his friend. Montaigne retired to his library of over 1500 volumes, and began to read the past to understand his thinking and life in his present. Soon Montaigne was writing essays, a new idea and one that he popularized. These essays ranged in subjects and in people mentioned. One's reputation after death, dealing with liars, the role of kings, being a better person. Most of the important essays are contained here, again with a new translation.
I read Montaigne years ago in college, but really became interested in him a number of years ago when I found a Cambridge Annotation of his works. What at first seemed like a boring lark became a lot more, as Montaigne was not just a good writer, but a person who seemed to not mind looking into himself, not liking what he saw, and sharing it. One could ask what does a book 400 years have for me. Well to paraphrase Dylan it contains multitudes. The real power of the essays is the aftereffect. When one finishes, goes about their day, and suddenly get get something out of one's head. I find that a lot while reading Montaigne, it seems to be right before going to bed, my brain will go, hey wait what does this mean? And why?
A very good title, one that asks and presents at the same time. This collection is a fine introduction to more by Montaigne, but if one doesn't go on, well there is a lot to contemplate here. And contemplate about oneself.
As like many I kind of long to lock myself up somewhere, not have to deal with 99.9999% of the human race, read my books and just enjoy the silence. If given ten years I doubt I would come to great ideas or conclusions about the human race. I would probably be annoyed someone was bothering me after ten years. Michel de Montaigne was different. Not only did he lock himself away in contemplation of his own life, follies, and fancies, Montaigne wrote about them in ways that even hundreds of years later still speak to us. About life, our place in it, and what we should expect from ourselves, and what many in the world settle for. What Do I Know?: Essential Essays by Michel de Montaigne offers a new translation of classic works from the writer who developed the essay while thinking about his own past and actions, and what he learned from them.
Michel de Montaigne was born into wealth, herring wealth actually, in 1533, in France. Montaigne received an excellent education, but not much is known about his youth or his family life, his father being the subject of a few essays, his mother only mentioned a few times. Montaigne became a stateman, a trusted man in court, known both for his writing and winning many honors, which it seemed meant little to him. Montaigne had a friend, a poet whose company he enjoyed, who died young which might have had an effect on Montaigne and how he saw the world. At the age of 38, Montaigne was growing tired of the court and went to his family estate, which he had just inherited, where he was nearly killed in a riding accident. This also might have had an effect on him, death coming close, but taking his friend. Montaigne retired to his library of over 1500 volumes, and began to read the past to understand his thinking and life in his present. Soon Montaigne was writing essays, a new idea and one that he popularized. These essays ranged in subjects and in people mentioned. One's reputation after death, dealing with liars, the role of kings, being a better person. Most of the important essays are contained here, again with a new translation.
I read Montaigne years ago in college, but really became interested in him a number of years ago when I found a Cambridge Annotation of his works. What at first seemed like a boring lark became a lot more, as Montaigne was not just a good writer, but a person who seemed to not mind looking into himself, not liking what he saw, and sharing it. One could ask what does a book 400 years have for me. Well to paraphrase Dylan it contains multitudes. The real power of the essays is the aftereffect. When one finishes, goes about their day, and suddenly get get something out of one's head. I find that a lot while reading Montaigne, it seems to be right before going to bed, my brain will go, hey wait what does this mean? And why?
A very good title, one that asks and presents at the same time. This collection is a fine introduction to more by Montaigne, but if one doesn't go on, well there is a lot to contemplate here. And contemplate about oneself.
July 2, 2025
The Essays book I aka Les Essais Livre I by Michel de Montaigne, author of Essays on Friendship, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... along with other reviews
10 out of 10
Let us try to start off with an attempt to be humorous – this is so spectacular that it is very difficult to read, I mean I am trying the audiobook version – by the way, seeing that this is centuries old, and thus the copyright has expired also some hundreds of years back, you can listen to it for free, or find it on this site https://www.gutenberg.org/
It is more difficult to listen to someone reading the book for you, it is nay impossible if we are talking about Ulysses or Beckett https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/08/... and Michel de Montaigne has so much packed in, that the average brain would have trouble assimilating, at least mine has
On the other hand, there is a lot that makes sense, seems so reasonable, as in well, I might have thought of that, or I did read this before, and it has crossed my mind, most often the thinker is so decent, he even takes a relaxed attitude towards cannibals, if I have got that right, I may just sell you poppycock here, unintentionally though
Some of the essays have been through my ears this morning, as I was doing my fifteen kilometers run – is it not impressive, I just inserted this here, to show off, if I cannot put here exquisite, awe-inspiring lines that would catapult me to offers for writing a Pulitzer Prize winner, at least let us brag about some brawn, and I am sixty!
Therefore, it was difficult, though there is that thing called the ‘runner’s high’, developed though millennia of evolution, nature has provided humans with a system to keep them active, you see a predator, and you need to get away fast – we are talking prehistory, right? – so the body has to face the challenge
Well, the brain would get a dose of stimulants, the perfect cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, adrenalin (or the latter is for the heart), some of these would be present, but I forgot the rest, the point of it is that this stimulates, offers a sensation of getting to what might be called Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... a classic of positive psychology
Indeed, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of positive psychology, along with Martin Seligman, has studied what brings humans into The Zone, to a Peak Experience, and contrary to what some expected, that lethargy would be so pleasant, participants would express felicity when sitting on the couch, it was a surprising result
We are in (near?) ecstasy when we are challenged, tested, granted, one paramount rule is that challenges meet skills, or else you must be on the line between boredom and burnout, not too easy as to be uninteresting, nor too heavy as to make you suffer and lose joy, time is relative, that is another condition of flow
If you have an overwhelming experience, in that it is too much, time will dilate, it will feel as in the Einstein quote “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” The pain of the hot stove, but when it is splendid, time is short
I will refer to Positivity https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... another essential book in psychology, the author, marvelous Barbara Fredrickson, looked at what is positivity, what are the elements, how do we get there, and evidently, you need to read the book to get to the essence
Nonetheless, there are ten components which are sine qua non, awe, interest, joy, inspiration, pride, amusement, hope, serenity, gratitude and love, albeit I have some qualms, in that at least two of them look to me as contradicting some principles from other, sage thinking, in particular, that of the stoics, the ascetic luminaries
That is we need to be happy with what we have, hence what is the need for hope, and if modesty is the key word, how about pride https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/... it is just a mind game, for there is a need to apply moderation, or what was called the Golden Mean
I am thinking now of a real-life example, with fucked up office here – my daughter made me buy a camera, worth near 3,000 Dolars, with the incentive that they would give 300 back, after waiting for one month, so that they are sure we keep the goods, and not return them, only now we are caught in a clash with them
Well, it is about finished, because they just do not want to give the 300, because they claim that the registration did not take place in time – which even by that standard is gruesome, in my mind, for they say wait one month, but not more than five, and then this was not like big, on the site, it was just wait a month
And then the huge cost, 3000 dollars, why not say now, we are seven months out or so, that alright, you are valuable customers, we get the point, she may have registered on the site, these have problems, they have had those with that The Interview movie, when Kim of North Korea got upset, and then they hacked their game
But no, they just refuse to pay, and I need to remember ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma’ from the book The How of Happiness
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
10 out of 10
Let us try to start off with an attempt to be humorous – this is so spectacular that it is very difficult to read, I mean I am trying the audiobook version – by the way, seeing that this is centuries old, and thus the copyright has expired also some hundreds of years back, you can listen to it for free, or find it on this site https://www.gutenberg.org/
It is more difficult to listen to someone reading the book for you, it is nay impossible if we are talking about Ulysses or Beckett https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/08/... and Michel de Montaigne has so much packed in, that the average brain would have trouble assimilating, at least mine has
On the other hand, there is a lot that makes sense, seems so reasonable, as in well, I might have thought of that, or I did read this before, and it has crossed my mind, most often the thinker is so decent, he even takes a relaxed attitude towards cannibals, if I have got that right, I may just sell you poppycock here, unintentionally though
Some of the essays have been through my ears this morning, as I was doing my fifteen kilometers run – is it not impressive, I just inserted this here, to show off, if I cannot put here exquisite, awe-inspiring lines that would catapult me to offers for writing a Pulitzer Prize winner, at least let us brag about some brawn, and I am sixty!
Therefore, it was difficult, though there is that thing called the ‘runner’s high’, developed though millennia of evolution, nature has provided humans with a system to keep them active, you see a predator, and you need to get away fast – we are talking prehistory, right? – so the body has to face the challenge
Well, the brain would get a dose of stimulants, the perfect cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, adrenalin (or the latter is for the heart), some of these would be present, but I forgot the rest, the point of it is that this stimulates, offers a sensation of getting to what might be called Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... a classic of positive psychology
Indeed, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of positive psychology, along with Martin Seligman, has studied what brings humans into The Zone, to a Peak Experience, and contrary to what some expected, that lethargy would be so pleasant, participants would express felicity when sitting on the couch, it was a surprising result
We are in (near?) ecstasy when we are challenged, tested, granted, one paramount rule is that challenges meet skills, or else you must be on the line between boredom and burnout, not too easy as to be uninteresting, nor too heavy as to make you suffer and lose joy, time is relative, that is another condition of flow
If you have an overwhelming experience, in that it is too much, time will dilate, it will feel as in the Einstein quote “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” The pain of the hot stove, but when it is splendid, time is short
I will refer to Positivity https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... another essential book in psychology, the author, marvelous Barbara Fredrickson, looked at what is positivity, what are the elements, how do we get there, and evidently, you need to read the book to get to the essence
Nonetheless, there are ten components which are sine qua non, awe, interest, joy, inspiration, pride, amusement, hope, serenity, gratitude and love, albeit I have some qualms, in that at least two of them look to me as contradicting some principles from other, sage thinking, in particular, that of the stoics, the ascetic luminaries
That is we need to be happy with what we have, hence what is the need for hope, and if modesty is the key word, how about pride https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/... it is just a mind game, for there is a need to apply moderation, or what was called the Golden Mean
I am thinking now of a real-life example, with fucked up office here – my daughter made me buy a camera, worth near 3,000 Dolars, with the incentive that they would give 300 back, after waiting for one month, so that they are sure we keep the goods, and not return them, only now we are caught in a clash with them
Well, it is about finished, because they just do not want to give the 300, because they claim that the registration did not take place in time – which even by that standard is gruesome, in my mind, for they say wait one month, but not more than five, and then this was not like big, on the site, it was just wait a month
And then the huge cost, 3000 dollars, why not say now, we are seven months out or so, that alright, you are valuable customers, we get the point, she may have registered on the site, these have problems, they have had those with that The Interview movie, when Kim of North Korea got upset, and then they hacked their game
But no, they just refuse to pay, and I need to remember ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma’ from the book The How of Happiness
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
November 25, 2025
Well this is probably not a book many Average Readers will pick up for the browse on the daily commute. But just in case, I'll suggest they look elsewhere – this is readable, and of vague interest, but while not as high-falutin' as I might have feared is definitely for the more scholarly types. So what do we learn?
Well, 'On Sorrow' shows how the classics were full of people showing the excess of emotion, and why we might be better off not following suit. People can leave a nasty legacy, so it's best we pay all our dues and put an end to all our grievances while still alive. Idle thoughts are not good thoughts. 'On Lying' does what it says on the tin, and that's the truth. Written, we are told, as a pre-emptive response to him dying, we see that we can only judge our life to be happy when we're facing our last day on earth. (You also see how awkward these things are when they quote so many happy rulers of antiquity as evidence, but it makes a change from citing Virgil's "Aeneid".)
'On Fear' copies the sorrow piece, and involves an emotion that can paralyse. We see the dangers of disbelief and discrediting things when we are not in a position to know the truth. It's only natural for us to have conflicting thoughts and appear two-faced, like some murderer grieving his own act. 'On Solitude' is not so much about being alone as being in retirement, and how we bear ourselves when having left public office. We're told that either/or decisions in war are not easy to get right. 'On Drunkenness' implies he'd rather have an ecstatic visitation, as opposed to a drunken hallucination – either way, he's not in favour of the state.
We meet some cannibal Brazilians. 'On Inequality' points to a glamour-styled falsity to being in charge that makes a lot of it a bit iffy. Some people in the classics managed to sleep before a battle, some didn't. Three score years and ten of learning and growth are a fallacy, and the man is made in his tens and twenties – not to last much longer than that. And we close with 'On Carriages' – which actually is about rulers who spend too much money on bling, and the Spanish Conquistadors.
A mixed bag, then – some of this is self-evident, some of this unusual to find discussed. If you like reading ancient essays and philosophy then this is certainly a major title, ramping up the accessibility with what seems to be a very decent translation. But my two and a half stars rating implies it is not something I'd ever universally recommend.
Well, 'On Sorrow' shows how the classics were full of people showing the excess of emotion, and why we might be better off not following suit. People can leave a nasty legacy, so it's best we pay all our dues and put an end to all our grievances while still alive. Idle thoughts are not good thoughts. 'On Lying' does what it says on the tin, and that's the truth. Written, we are told, as a pre-emptive response to him dying, we see that we can only judge our life to be happy when we're facing our last day on earth. (You also see how awkward these things are when they quote so many happy rulers of antiquity as evidence, but it makes a change from citing Virgil's "Aeneid".)
'On Fear' copies the sorrow piece, and involves an emotion that can paralyse. We see the dangers of disbelief and discrediting things when we are not in a position to know the truth. It's only natural for us to have conflicting thoughts and appear two-faced, like some murderer grieving his own act. 'On Solitude' is not so much about being alone as being in retirement, and how we bear ourselves when having left public office. We're told that either/or decisions in war are not easy to get right. 'On Drunkenness' implies he'd rather have an ecstatic visitation, as opposed to a drunken hallucination – either way, he's not in favour of the state.
We meet some cannibal Brazilians. 'On Inequality' points to a glamour-styled falsity to being in charge that makes a lot of it a bit iffy. Some people in the classics managed to sleep before a battle, some didn't. Three score years and ten of learning and growth are a fallacy, and the man is made in his tens and twenties – not to last much longer than that. And we close with 'On Carriages' – which actually is about rulers who spend too much money on bling, and the Spanish Conquistadors.
A mixed bag, then – some of this is self-evident, some of this unusual to find discussed. If you like reading ancient essays and philosophy then this is certainly a major title, ramping up the accessibility with what seems to be a very decent translation. But my two and a half stars rating implies it is not something I'd ever universally recommend.
October 31, 2025
Pushkin Press have excelled themselves in WHAT DO I KNOW?, a fine selection of French Renaissance author Michel de Montaigne's essential essays which have been freshly published in a new translation from the French by David Coward. The collection opens with a brief but telling introduction from Chinese novelist Yiyun Li, who explains the impact that de Montaigne has had on her life before moving into a selection of the Frenchman's greatest hits.
I'd never read de Montaigne before, but I found this relaxed style intensely readable and his arguments carefully explored. The essays chosen for selection in this collection include the nature of fear (de Montaigne reasonably arguing that the only real fear is fear itself, some four centuries before Roosevelt popularised the phrase), lying, pastimes, logic, alcohol abuse, solitude, and even cannibalism. The essays are shot through with liberal quotations from a variety of sources, and de Montaigne is obviously a very well read and erudite figure who portrays the same clear-headedness as a figure like William of Ockham.
De Montaigne draws liberally from the classics, discusses incidents in the lives of great figures such as Alexander the Great, and shows the ways that even modern readers today can learn lessons from such events. For example, in one section he takes time out to excoriate torture in his discussion of what happened to the indigenous Americans when they fell into the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors. This is a lively collection of conversational pieces that are eloquately stated and thoroughly persuasive. De Montaigne is a timeless author in the way his essays still bear relevance today, and I am delighted to have encountered them.
(Advance review copy supplied by Netgalley)
I'd never read de Montaigne before, but I found this relaxed style intensely readable and his arguments carefully explored. The essays chosen for selection in this collection include the nature of fear (de Montaigne reasonably arguing that the only real fear is fear itself, some four centuries before Roosevelt popularised the phrase), lying, pastimes, logic, alcohol abuse, solitude, and even cannibalism. The essays are shot through with liberal quotations from a variety of sources, and de Montaigne is obviously a very well read and erudite figure who portrays the same clear-headedness as a figure like William of Ockham.
De Montaigne draws liberally from the classics, discusses incidents in the lives of great figures such as Alexander the Great, and shows the ways that even modern readers today can learn lessons from such events. For example, in one section he takes time out to excoriate torture in his discussion of what happened to the indigenous Americans when they fell into the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors. This is a lively collection of conversational pieces that are eloquately stated and thoroughly persuasive. De Montaigne is a timeless author in the way his essays still bear relevance today, and I am delighted to have encountered them.
(Advance review copy supplied by Netgalley)
September 10, 2025
I think it’s really wonderful to see a man from the 1500s quote and examine Ancient Greek and Roman passages, in the same way I did in the 2000s in college. This essay collection makes you feel like the world isn’t too big, but also so big. I think I would have preferred to have a hard copy, and take annotations. This translation is beautiful with some really well crafted prose, both a sign of competence in De Montaigne and the translator. I think this piece would have worked better for me if I had been studying it in a classroom instead of reading it for leisure. There were several uncomfortable and dated anecdotes that I found took away from my experience reading it (non consensual somnophilia, beheading, women as property, racism, etc). I understand these are real things that happened but it doesn’t make reading them very fun, and there are other essays in this collection that don’t touch topics like that, which were much more enjoyable. Still the writing was excellent and I think many will enjoy this.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.
December 15, 2025
Fresh and vital
—
From the publisher: “ 'I myself am the subject of my book'. So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays, the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form. In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal reflection to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement.”
In sixteen of Montaigne’s essays, he offers us his introspective perspective on our feelings, our relationships and ourselves. Speaking to us across almost five hundred years, which seems such a long time to us, his thoughts and his words have lost none of their relevance, especially in times as troubling as ours. What most surprises me is how his self-reflection encompasses the world of his time as well as our own, and how his words in this translation still seem fresh and vital across all of the intervening time.
Four and a half stars
—
From the publisher: “ 'I myself am the subject of my book'. So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays, the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form. In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal reflection to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement.”
In sixteen of Montaigne’s essays, he offers us his introspective perspective on our feelings, our relationships and ourselves. Speaking to us across almost five hundred years, which seems such a long time to us, his thoughts and his words have lost none of their relevance, especially in times as troubling as ours. What most surprises me is how his self-reflection encompasses the world of his time as well as our own, and how his words in this translation still seem fresh and vital across all of the intervening time.
Four and a half stars
December 19, 2023
“Therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book. This being so, there is no reason why you should devote your leisure time to so trivial and unprofitable a topic.
And so farewell.”
And so farewell!
And so farewell.”
And so farewell!
January 22, 2024
My first go-round with Montaigne. An excellent collection of essays that I’ll return to.
January 29, 2025
Love the format and print quality. Struggled with this translation. In sum: mixed feelings
October 15, 2025
thirty-one pages of writing on carriages
June 30, 2024
It’s a decent and short book you can breeze through in a day. Some bits are a bit hard to follow and I expected it to be a bit more philosophical… Each essay revolves around one topic with many quotes from classic pieces relating to each topic. I’d recommend it if you like to read other people’s opinions on existential issues.
September 27, 2025
This is a great introduction to the classic essays of Michel de Montaigne in a new translation. His insightful essays stay with us because they speak to the human condition truthfully and forthrightly. Recommended as a great place to start with this important author.
[I received an advanced e-galley from Netgalley.]
[I received an advanced e-galley from Netgalley.]
August 28, 2024
Highly readable translation. I'm glad I finished it, though The final essay, "On Carriages," on the conquistadors' conquest of the Incan and Aztec empires, is devastating.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews