How Michel de Montaigne wrote his essays

In the vast critical commentary on the essays by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), I haven’t found detailed explanations of Montaigne’s writing method. The question is intriguing and worth answering: Montaigne proved capable of producing dozens of high-quality essays, but he lacked sophisticated tools. He possessed a relatively small book collection, paper, ink, a feather, and a writing desk. How did he manage to produce such an extensive literary output? How did he manage to keep a high level of quality in his essays? After studying Montaigne’s texts in detail, I have come with an answer to those questions. I have looked at the output and inputs, and developed a theory. Montaigne wrote his essays by using a method that I have baptised “drill around the pain.” The method encompasses two elements: pain and drilling. Let me explain how it works. First, Montaigne selected subjects about which he felt very strongly or that bothered him in some way. He chose historical figures, current events, societal fashions, moral misconceptions and injustices that irritated him. That’s what I call “pain.” Second, he started to throw arguments at the pain, trying to extinguish it once and for all, but as he drilled, the pain seemed to grow wider and stronger. Montaigne kept drilling, but the pain kept growing. He gave solid arguments to terminate the pain, but at the same time, he found arguments that nourished and strengthened the pain. The tension of this fight is present in all Montaigne’s essays. Let’s take a look at one example. I have chosen this essay precisely because, at first sight, it doesn’t fall into the paradigm of “drilling around the pain.” The essay carries the title “Not to counterfeit being sick.” A superficial look at the essay reveals its subject as a study of the reasons why some people pretend to be sick. If we look at the subject from a distance, it seems anodyne, boring. Why would anyone bother to write an essay on this subject? Nevertheless, Montaigne managed to turn a seemingly grey, anodyne subject into a thought-provoking essay. He did so by using pain as a starting point. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/how-michel-de-montaigne-wrote-his-essays/