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A review by spautz
The Complete Works by Donald M. Frame, Michel de Montaigne
5.0
This massive tome of essays is one of the most interesting things I've ever read -- and probably the longest as well. It's interesting, varied, and fascinating, and although it has its awkward parts I'd rank it as literally life-changing.
The majority of this work is Montaigne's actual Essays: he published three books filled with writings on various topics and thoughts -- from philosophy to history to random musings to 16th century events -- in a new-at-the-time style: somewhere between stream-of-consciousness and structured discussions. (The back cover of my book describes it as "talk", "cultivated discontinuities", "tumbling into anecdotes" -- yet it's also clearly a philosophical work.)
He then revised and expanded the essays each time they were published, resulting in a (to me) almost indescribably interesting and (at times) nearly sublime treatment of a wide variety of random and independent topics -- but not too independent: there are plenty of recurring themes and approaches, and also several stances where you can see his opinion shifting over time.
The essays in the first book are rather scattered and random, but as time progresses they grow deeper and more coherent. By the third book he is clearly influenced to some degree by the knowledge that he's actually writing for an audience, yet his writings still convey his personality and intimate thoughts.
The essays are often quite dense, and I felt like no reading speed was quite appropriate yet all were rewarding: slow and careful deep reading reveals multiple layers of meaning and an amazing web of associations as a single topic is revisited and hinted at (sometimes faintly) from many different perspectives over time; but faster reading revealed its own layer of arcs and conversational rails which I completely missed at my normal reading speed, because the scope was too large for me to see. I often had to go slowly (and keep a dictionary nearby) because the writing is so dense and intricate.
Not all of the essays are all that great, however, and there's definitely no shortage of 16th century thinking: rampant jaw-dropping sexism (and other -isms), ludicrously inaccurate ideas about health and medicine, and no shortage of religious thinking. There's also enough variety to balance some of that out: comments about "the lesser and inferior sex" are mixed with a general philosophy that held people closer to equals than most of society did at the time, some of the stuff about health and medicine is borderline hilarious (like rumors of women turning into men if they jump up and down too forcefully), and there's a healthy attitude of skepticism about (some) things in religion and politics.
There is fairly little commentary, although where the footnotes are present they are very thorough and informative. This is especially present in the travel journal and letters.
The travel journal and letters are considerably less interesting and engaging than the actual essays, and I had a hard time getting as into them -- I don't know if I'd recommend those parts (he spends a lot of time complaining about kidney stones and talking about the various sizes and shapes that come out of him), but the historical perspective they provided was fascinating.
I was somewhat tempted to lower my review because, on the whole, not all of this book really merits 5 stars -- but the parts which are good are truly fantastic. Despite the immense time investment it takes to actually read this cover-to-cover (instead of jumping to the more interesting spots, as seems more common) I want to read this again and again.
The majority of this work is Montaigne's actual Essays: he published three books filled with writings on various topics and thoughts -- from philosophy to history to random musings to 16th century events -- in a new-at-the-time style: somewhere between stream-of-consciousness and structured discussions. (The back cover of my book describes it as "talk", "cultivated discontinuities", "tumbling into anecdotes" -- yet it's also clearly a philosophical work.)
He then revised and expanded the essays each time they were published, resulting in a (to me) almost indescribably interesting and (at times) nearly sublime treatment of a wide variety of random and independent topics -- but not too independent: there are plenty of recurring themes and approaches, and also several stances where you can see his opinion shifting over time.
The essays in the first book are rather scattered and random, but as time progresses they grow deeper and more coherent. By the third book he is clearly influenced to some degree by the knowledge that he's actually writing for an audience, yet his writings still convey his personality and intimate thoughts.
The essays are often quite dense, and I felt like no reading speed was quite appropriate yet all were rewarding: slow and careful deep reading reveals multiple layers of meaning and an amazing web of associations as a single topic is revisited and hinted at (sometimes faintly) from many different perspectives over time; but faster reading revealed its own layer of arcs and conversational rails which I completely missed at my normal reading speed, because the scope was too large for me to see. I often had to go slowly (and keep a dictionary nearby) because the writing is so dense and intricate.
Not all of the essays are all that great, however, and there's definitely no shortage of 16th century thinking: rampant jaw-dropping sexism (and other -isms), ludicrously inaccurate ideas about health and medicine, and no shortage of religious thinking. There's also enough variety to balance some of that out: comments about "the lesser and inferior sex" are mixed with a general philosophy that held people closer to equals than most of society did at the time, some of the stuff about health and medicine is borderline hilarious (like rumors of women turning into men if they jump up and down too forcefully), and there's a healthy attitude of skepticism about (some) things in religion and politics.
There is fairly little commentary, although where the footnotes are present they are very thorough and informative. This is especially present in the travel journal and letters.
The travel journal and letters are considerably less interesting and engaging than the actual essays, and I had a hard time getting as into them -- I don't know if I'd recommend those parts (he spends a lot of time complaining about kidney stones and talking about the various sizes and shapes that come out of him), but the historical perspective they provided was fascinating.
I was somewhat tempted to lower my review because, on the whole, not all of this book really merits 5 stars -- but the parts which are good are truly fantastic. Despite the immense time investment it takes to actually read this cover-to-cover (instead of jumping to the more interesting spots, as seems more common) I want to read this again and again.