A review by aria_izikdzurko
The Complete Essays, by Michel de Montaigne
5.0
Where to start... after a month of carrying Montaigne in my bag at all times, I feel as though I know him. I would, in fact, very much like to know him: by all appearances, he was a kind, virtuous, honest man. He laid bare his entire entity for public scrutiny in an attempt to probe the inner workings of consciousness and human nature. This is not a book of pompous statements, but a book of questions, a book which feels more like a conversation with the author than a one-way lecture.
I felt I had to fully digest and think about each essay in this mammoth of a book; as Montaigne reminds us, "we only labour to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage for grain, and bring it home in the beak, without tasting it themselves, to feed their young; so our pedants go picking knowledge here and there, out of books, and hold it at the tongue's end, only to spit it out and distribute it abroad." Oop. I guess there won't be any skimming of paragraphs here.
Furthermore, "Men are apt presently to inquire, does such a one understand Greek or Latin? Is he a poet? or does he write in prose? But whether he be grown better or more discreet, which are qualities of principal concern, these are never thought of. We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned". I suppose I can't go bragging about finishing this book, either, not without a guilty conscience. Ah well, it was worth the journey, each and every page.
I felt I had to fully digest and think about each essay in this mammoth of a book; as Montaigne reminds us, "we only labour to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage for grain, and bring it home in the beak, without tasting it themselves, to feed their young; so our pedants go picking knowledge here and there, out of books, and hold it at the tongue's end, only to spit it out and distribute it abroad." Oop. I guess there won't be any skimming of paragraphs here.
Furthermore, "Men are apt presently to inquire, does such a one understand Greek or Latin? Is he a poet? or does he write in prose? But whether he be grown better or more discreet, which are qualities of principal concern, these are never thought of. We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned". I suppose I can't go bragging about finishing this book, either, not without a guilty conscience. Ah well, it was worth the journey, each and every page.