Essays (Montaigne)

Essays is the title of a book written by Michel de Montaigne that was first published in 1580. Montaigne essentially invented the literary form of essay, a short subjective treatment of a given topic, of which the book contains a large number. Essai is French for "trial" or "attempt".

External links

• The Charles Cotton translation of some of Montaigne's essays:
• plain text version by Project Gutenberg
• HTML version at the University of Adelaide
• searchable HTML version at Oregon State University
• The complete, searchable text of the Villey-Saulnier edition from the ARFTL project at the University of Chicago (French)
• The Great Conversation Yahoo discussion group will be discussing a selection of Montaigne's essays in the months of June and July, 2005. The selections are: Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil.