A fresh new translation of Michel de Montaignes 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 mindI 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 Montaignes 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 includes:
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
Recenzijas
'Read Montaigne in order to live' - Gustave Flaubert
'I defy any reader of Montaigne not to put down the book at some point and say with incredulity: How did he know all that about me?' - The Times
'[ Montaigne] was the first who had the courage to say as an author what he felt as a man' - William Hazlitt
PART ONE
MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE
1 On Sorrow
2 On how our Actions are to be judged by the Intention
3 On Idling
4 On Liars
5 That we should not be considered happy until we are dead
PART TWO
ON THE PURSUIT OF REASON
6 On Fear
7 To tell true from false, it is folly to rely on our own
capacities
8 How we can cry and laugh at the same thing
9 On Solitude
10 On the Uncertainty of our Judgement
11 On Drunkenness
PART THREE
ON GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNORS
12 On Cannibals
13 On the Inequality that exists between us
14 On Sleep
15 On our lease of life
16 On Carriages
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was born on his family estate in Aquitaine, not far from Bordeaux. Raised speaking Greek and Latin, he studied law before embarking on a career of public service, first as a counselor of court in Périgueux and Bordeaux, then as a courtier to Charles IX. Following the death of his father, Montaigne retired from public life to the Tower of his chāteau to read and write. He published the first two volumes of his landmark Essays in 1580, with a third following in 1588; the complete Essays appeared posthumously in 1595.
