Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays Paperback – May 1, 2020

I was a little disappointed with the Essays of Montaigne. Some years ago, I had a couple of friends tell me they were wonderful, and that I would really enjoy them. Obviously, I was not as impressed as they were.Of course, I have never been overly fond of essays to begin with, a prejudice that goes back to my days in school when essays were something teachers made you write. In this regard, Montaigne’s essays are better than average. Montaigne is the person credited with inventing the essay. His self-proclaimed purpose in writing them was to leave for his family and those others who should be interested afterward a portrait of how he thought. Some of the essays are very interesting, and he has a few good lines scattered throughout the collection.Aside from my general bias against the essay as a form of writing, there were two other things I did not much care for in the Essays. One was a propensity to ramble a bit from one subject to another. I know I tend to do this myself, and this would not bother me that much except that it makes some of the essays run on pretty long. Too long in some cases.The other thing that irritated me in the Essays was the frequent use of quotes from ancient Greek and Latin authors. As it turned out, these are all translated at the end of each essay in this edition. But it was annoying to keep running into all these long passages whose meaning is not clear.

Full Review- Book, Montaigne, Differences Between Two translated Version & PhotosGREAT & CELEBRATED BOOK (difficult read), fast shipping, came exactly as described. This is the ONE for those who are ready to dive into the deepend. This is the serious one. Every essay is different and wonderful. I am attaching photographs of THIS version (Screech) so that you can see what you are diving into. My copy has been noted as I have been teaching him.MONTAIGNEThe writer to publish the first personal essay, and most essays are short and intriguing in that they use psychology to communicate his messages. This is done through poetry, historical references, linguistics, theology, imaginary scenarios and intriguing language. every essay is a paradox. You do not need to know that, hence the enjoyable aspect. Montaigne has influenced writers/figures like Eliot, Freud, Shakespeare, Descartes and more.SCREECH’S INTROIt's important only if you are interested (or are required) in understanding the translation process. Screech dives into the history that influenced Montaigne's essays. His introduction tells you a bit about Montaigne, but it is not that long and can be skipped. He also explains how he went about translating his version of this collection.OMISSIONS OF WORKS IN SCREECH’S BOOKThere's stuff missing in a bunch of the collections because he has written so much. If you are looking for something rare or specific, you should look which book it is before purchasing. All of them are available on Amazon..HELP FOR STUDENTSSome college professors are adamant that only this book be read. You might need to write papers with citations. This book is very different than the other books. Screech's is better for students and scholars. It includes citations and the very short Latin and French quotes that he uses, though all of it is translated into English for you. The Latin and French line/quotes/references are usually very short. The translations are right next to quotes in parenthesis. If you purchase a different collection, you will have a very difficult time with writing papers because of the varying translations.Overall, this is a phenomenal read produced by a prolific and prominent man. Screech does a great job. This is the best book of the collections that I have purchased, though it is the most difficult to understand. Again, this collection is more for scholars and academics. Montaigne is studied to this day, nearly as much as Shakespeare because of the sheer difficulty of the paradoxes presented, but, they are enlightening and enjoyable. In terms of literature, Montaigne is one of the "trickiest" reads (he calls himself tricky-- it is a bit of his trademark).

Excellent accessible footnotes.Scanning typos occasionally especially silly in book 3.I will seek others in this series. Price is incredibly low.

Wish I had known about Montaigne and that I had been familiar with his intriguing essays years ago, although I probably wouldn't have appreciated them as much then as I do now. Takes all the Greek and Roman philosophers off their pedestals and makes them human, warts and all, but nevertheless, as fallible, makes them more worthy of their reputations. And Montaigne puts human mannerisms and current daily life, which, it turns out was just as current throughout history, in a current philosophical setting. Fun reading while trying sometimes to figure out his expressions and writing style and is especially interesting with a good Kindle dictionary close at hand to decipher words and their meanings that are antiquated. Extracting his thoughts from his convoluted but poetic writing style is a great exercise in perseverance, and gives me the satisfaction of solving a puzzle.

The subject of this book is Michel de Montaigne, a 16th century frenchman, famous for writing this book. The topics he covers range from the wisdom of the ancient philosophers to everyday nuisances present in the life of the late 16th century. The overriding theme throughout is his focus on himself, the only subject he is sure that he knows better than anyone else. This book is valuable because he writes about subjects that are still relevant to today, over 400 years later, and will continue to be relevant throughout man's history to come. He asks questions that every human finds himself asking at some point. He focuses on ethics and theology and the human soul, and much more.His writing style is relaxing and candid. The book is broken up into numerous seemingly disjointed sections and can be read for 10 minutes or a couple hours at a time. Montaigne writes in a friendly tone but also covers plenty of serious subjects. This book is unique in providing what life was like for one man who lived over four centuries ago.

This is more a review of Review Pages.This edition - at least, mine is - is indeed the Penquin Dr Screech edition, complete with his very own introduction ( Personally I would have preferred an introduction to Montainge himself rather than a long drawn out apologetic of the Catholic Faith which are available elsewhere if you are so inclined ) Quite a few reviews tell us it is not, and also tell us it is impossible to navigate etc etc. Once again, I can only say that my edition has a full list of all the essays and that they can be individually selected by the simple tap of a finger. It also has numbered notes to the text that can be tapped, read, then tapped again to return to where you started from. It all works fine. Which seems to say that Review Pages are a minefield of misinformation - which as far as intent goes is no ones fault at all, yet surely some way needs to be found to "clean them up"?Otherwise no one knows what they are getting until they have got it! Even a peep to "Look Insude" first often seems to yield a totally different version to the one eventually downloaded.Price is another thing. I paid £3.99, now it is £7.99. Maybe it is a good idea to put a book on your Wish List and jump in at the moment the price dips? Rather like the Stock Market. But don't wait too long. I was about to buy the Graphic Guide to Quantum Physics at a mere 99p, then saw that the price had been raised to £3.00. I waited........now it is £3.79. Perhaps the publishers wish to demonstrate the actual reality of the "quantum theory"? Chaotic quantum leaps of price for no apparent reason? Who knows. Welcome to the crazy world of Ebooks.Anyway, Montaigne. Really good to know that a human being, surrounded by the slightly crazy religious world of the 16th century, when Luther was stamping his foot and insisting the sun moved ( not the earth ) and many of "faith" were engaged in warfare to prove it, good to know Montaigne was there in the thick of it salvaging his humanity and passing it on for future generations. There is hope for us all.

Beware. This is NOT the penguin complete essays as advertised - that is what I thought I was buying and the link actually takes you to this book instead. It is utterly dreadful. It is not the complete essays at all but a poor short selection, badly organised and with no publication details other that 'printed in Great Britain by Amazon'. The good reviews for this book obviously come from people who did get the penguin edition.

This edition really is complete. However this makes it an unwieldy size to read anywhere but seated at a desk. Would have been better split into two or even three volumes. Does double service as a weight.

I bought this by mistake: I intended to buy the recent translation by Screech. The Preface to this edition is dated 1877 and the language seems to be of that period. It is readable but requires some effort. Montaigne himself is fascinating.

Essential, that is, for serious readers, meaning readers who don't read trash. But it's not hard to read and, if some of the essays are less gripping than others, the great majority will have something for you to get your teeth into, and will leave you with something worthwhile to think about. Penguin price this at an astounding £20, but I guess you'll find it cheaper than that.