Montaigne and Melancholy: The Wisdom of the Essays

by M.A. Screech, Marc Fumaroli (Foreword)

Montaigne (1533-1592), the personification of philosophical calm, had to struggle to become the wise Renaissance humanist we know. His balanced temperament, sanguine and melancholic, promised genius but threatened madness. When he started his Essays, Montaigne was upset by an attack of melancholy He became temperamental and unbalanced. Writing about himself restored the balance but broke an age-old taboo_happily so, for he discovered profound truths about himself and about our human condition. His charm and humor have made his writings widely enjoyed and admired.

Genres: Philosophy

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 1992

About the author

Michael Andrew Screech was a cleric and a professor of French literature with special interests in the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne and François Rabelais.

Reviews

[Graychin · Rating 3 out of 5]

What exactly distinguishes a “monograph” from a mere book? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s the academic tone, the focus of its subject matter, or the idea that it was written with a specialist audience in mind. Screech’s monograph on Montaigne is fine. I have no big complaints. I’m well enough read to follow his arguments. And the subject matter is right up my alley. Reading and rereading Montaigne over the past ten years has done more than anything else to shape my approach to life and my personal philosophy, such as it is. And yet Screech succumbs to repetition and hero-worship at times. And his book is no substitute for reading Montaigne himself.

One stand-out: Despite the fact that Montaigne declares himself several times to be a committed Catholic, modern readers have generally treated him as a secret atheist. You’ll see this, for instance, in Sarah Bakewell’s recent biography.

Montaigne certainly was a skeptic – and he doesn’t talk very often about religion. But Screech, to his credit, takes Montaigne at his word on issues of faith. What’s more, he places him into the proper Counter-Reformation context. To be a skeptic today may mean to be generally godless. To be a skeptic of Montaigne’s kind in Montaigne’s own day, however, was to uphold tradition and revelation and the authority of the church against the liberal innovations of the Protestants. The Reformers asked “On what basis do you know that the Church is infallible and inspired?” Catholic skeptics like Montaigne replied by asking, “How do you really know anything at all?”

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must confess that in reading this book I was more interested in Melancholy than in Montaigne, though I have read some Montaigne as well as Bakewell. What I found most interesting was his description of 'practicing dying'. As I understand it, Montaigne believed that not only did the soul leave the body at death, but could leave the body to varying degrees during life -- as in inspiration, madness and drunkenness. Screech gives a history of this idea and describes Montaigne's complex views about the idea. I also liked Screech's discussion of Montaigne's skepticism in terms of the Renaissance use of that term. While this is a well written book I think that one would need more familiarity with Montaigne to get more out of it than I did.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short monograph by Montaigne's best English translator.