53 pages • 1 hour read
Michel de MontaigneMontaigne: Selected Essays
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1592A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Classical Thought
Looming over Montaigne’s essays are the writings of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, whose wisdom is prized by Renaissance and Early Modern Europeans. Montaigne quotes liberally from his favorites—Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, Cato the Younger, and Seneca the Younger, among others—and uses their wisdom as touchstones for his own thinking.
The Tower
Montaigne retires to a tower on the corner of the grounds of his chateau, where he thinks and writes his essays. The tower gives him the solitude he needs; the writing room is filled with books, and its crossbeams are emblazoned with his favorite quotes from the Bible and the Ancients.
The Estate
Montaigne inherits a large estate and chateau. He must manage this property, with its acres of grapes and other agricultural products, while writing his essays and dealing with the constant threat of religious warfare nearby.
Kidney Stones
One of Montaigne’s great life lessons, his kidney stones—and the extreme discomfort they cause—give him occasion to reflect on death, the Stoic acceptance of pain, and the poor state of medicine in his era. Though at one point Montaigne travels in search of a cure, generally he refuses the advice of doctors and relies on his own intuition to manage the symptoms.
The Essays
The essays are Montaigne’s great project. Their purpose is to describe their author; the essays refer to themselves whenever Montaigne mentions his process for producing them and their effect on his subsequent thinking. That the essays discuss themselves becomes an interesting and useful literary device, one that anticipates the sometimes reflexive self-consciousness of modern literature.
