Synopses & Reviews
These classic translations of Montaigne are presented with the authoritative French text on facing pages and provide an introduction and extensive notes helping students appreciate the depth and clarity of Montaignes thinking. The text includes Books 1, 2, and 3 of the essays; Montaignes translation of the natural theology of Raymond Sebond; a travel journal; and selected letters.
Synopsis
Montaigne's self-portrait is both individual and extra ordinarily universal. Unlike the Romantics later, he considered himself typical and sought mankind in himself: 'I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate'(315).