On Montaigne, Florios translation of the same, and Shakespeare. ***** Although he’s revered as a great classic writer, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) is an author we read because we want to, not because we have to. He’s intimate, erudite, chatty, and expansive—qualities well suited to the peculiar genre he essentially created. While puttering around his tower library in 16th-century France, Montaigne crafted conversational observations into familiar prose, inventing the personal essay as a new literary form. Others had composed essays before Montaigne, but they wrote as kings, soldiers, officials, or philosophers. Montaigne wrote simply as himself—a bemused and befuddled French aristocrat trying to make sense of it all.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:23:57 +0000
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