Montaigne

by Hugo Friedrich

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, written between 1572 and 1592, are cherished by readers and considered literary classics by scholars. Hugo Friedrich's masterful study of Montaigne's life and work, first published in Germany in 1949 and widely acclaimed by German and French readers, is now available to an English-speaking audience. Friedrich considers the Montaigne of the Essays one of the first "moralists" in the French sense of the term, recording with anthropological fervor and in fresh, informal language the full spectrum of human thought and commerce as he saw it. Philippe Desan, who introduces this fine translation, commends Friedrich's holistic interpretation of Montaigne's unstructured creation, so often reduced by critics to its smallest fragments. Friedrich, says Desan, evokes "an epoch, distilled from accounts given by the best witness of the Renaissance."

Genres: Literary Criticism

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[John]

I'm reading this book for the second time - now that I'm also reading the essays, translated by Donald Frame. Really one of the most illuminating works of literary criticism that I know.

[Rémi Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belle lecture, à conseiller pour ceux qui se sont perdus chez Montaigne

[Adam Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book is akin to taking a graduate level course in Montaigne. And if you love Montaigne like so many of us do, it is a course well-worth enjoying.

Happy reading!