Michel de Montaigne’s literary appreciation and criticism

Due to their heterogeneous subjects, the essays of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) cannot be easily summarised in quotes and one-liners. Nevertheless, I am going to present here the quotes that I consider most relevant for conveying Montaigne’s key messages. Montaigne’s essays constitute the output of twenty years of quiet labour. Amidst religious wars, political strife, famine and pestilence, Montaigne stayed loyal to his daily habits. He didn’t allow anyone or anything to disrupt his reading and writing. To those who are learning to appreciate Montaigne, I advise you to read his essay titled “On Books.” Literary historians have established that Montaigne was already fifty years old when he wrote it. In a way, he conceived this essay as a summary of the insights he had accumulated through the years. When did Montaigne mean when he wrote that “I do not measure my wisdom by the number of books in my library, but by their practical use.” In today’s terms, his library was not very large. It must have consisted of about one hundred volumes; that’s a small fraction of the number of books we can store nowadays in the memory of a tablet or smart phone. However, there is a key difference between Montaigne and most owners of tablets or smart phones. Few people nowadays read complete books, let alone numerous books per year. They prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts. In contrast, Montaigne read his hundred volumes with great interest, and then reread them many times. He wanted to draw every drop of wisdom from those books and improve his life. Reading develops one’s critical thinking. That’s why he wrote that “I trust my own judgement more than the opinions and teachings of learned parties.” Montaigne had acquired his self-confident thinking through twenty years of re-reading great books. Note that the ability to think critically didn’t come to him out of the blue. It’s the result of steady work, day in and day out. The trust in one’s intellect comes from using it daily, not from bravado or wishful thinking. Montaigne’s essays cover a large multiplicity of subjects. Those are areas in which he was looking for answers, or for arguments to support his views. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaignes-literary-appreciation-and-criticism/