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'It will surely remain as the definitive short study on Montaigne for years to come'
Product Description
Montaigne (1533-92) is commonly regarded as an early modern sceptic, standing at the threshold of a new secular way of thinking. He is also known for his ground-breaking exploration of the subject or the self . Terence Cave discusses these and other key aspects of the Essais (Montaigne s major work) not as philosophical themes but as features in the mapping of a mental landscape: the project of the Essais is cognitive rather than philosophical. Similarly, he reads the Essais not as essays in the literary sense but as trials or soundings in which the manner of writing the shape of the sentences, the use of metaphors and other figures is crucial. Taking passages from many different chapters of the Essais, this book guides the reader through Montaigne s investigation of the subtle shades and stirrings of the mind.
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First Sentence
When I recently retired to domestic life, determined to concern myself, as far as I was able, with nothing but spending my few remaining years in leisure and privacy, it seemed to me that I could do my mind no greater favour than to leave it in complete idleness, allowing it to commune with itself, to settle and find a fixed point within itself: something I hoped it could from now on achieve more easily, having in the course of time become more weighty and more mature. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When I recently retired to domestic life, determined to concern myself, as far as I was able, with nothing but spending my few remaining years in leisure and privacy, it seemed to me that I could do my mind no greater favour than to leave it in complete idleness, allowing it to commune with itself, to settle and find a fixed point within itself: something I hoped it could from now on achieve more easily, having in the course of time become more weighty and more mature. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This short book is not the easiest of reads, but it is very illuminating, showing, as it does, that Montaigne's Essais are primarily and in an original way about a way of thinking rather than about the contents of the thought. Essai was a word meaning an attempt, not a word describing a literary form as it was soon to become; it describes the attempts of Montaigne to capture and record precisely thought processes as they came to him, the precision matched with the fleeting nature of the thoughts, which often immediately evoked their opposites. Cave shows the careful choice of words and metaphor and how Montaigne's apparent randomness and digressions are actually cleverly crafted. There is no commitment to any certainty - hence the motto on one side of a medal he struck: Que sais-je? (Answer: `only one thing with certainty - myself'), matched on the reverse with a pair of scales to represent that one view needs to be weighed against another. He has often been described as a sceptic, and indeed he had quotations from sceptic philosophers painted on the beams of the ceiling in his library/study; but he knew that even scepticism had its drawbacks and dangers, and it is clear that he had some basic beliefs, and that at the centre of all his fleeting impressions there is a solid I. The book confirms the traditional picture of a sharp-minded but very attractive character.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Montaigne is hard to read, especially if French is not your native language. This book is a great, short and very readable guide to reading, and most importantly, understanding Montaigne. It certainly enhanced my understanding and enjoyment of reading Montaigne. I would highly recommend this little book.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an elegant, lucid introduction to Montaigne. It is as rewarding as a short book of this sort can be.
It's very unfortunate that it should have gone out of print so quickly. (Funny that the prices, even for used copies, seem to have risen far above the initial offer, so it seems to be a good investment as well!)
Please reprint, and quickly.
It's very unfortunate that it should have gone out of print so quickly. (Funny that the prices, even for used copies, seem to have risen far above the initial offer, so it seems to be a good investment as well!)
Please reprint, and quickly.
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