I’m happy to announce that I’ve just published the second edition of my Montaigne Project book ESSAI BY ESSAY. You can buy right now on Amazon in either ebook or paperback format. If you have Amazon Prime, the book is free — so please check it out.

Why did I decide to revise the book so soon after its publication? Two reasons—first is that ESSAI BY ESSAY was one of the first self-published books that I brought to market, and for that reason it was bit rough around the edges. There were pagination issues, some of the editing tools I was using created some awkward passages in the text, and since bringing out this book, I’ve brought several more books to market and learned quite a bit in the process.

In other words, this edition simply looks better and will read better. But this edition also reflects new thinking about Montaigne that has surfaced for me since I finished the book. I started using some machine language tools to create my own translation of Montaigne last year, and that made me see some of the essays differently, especially the works early in book one. The first 20 pieces in ESSAI BY ESSAY are my most radically rethought in the project.

I also spent a good deal of time on the Book 3 essays, because they feel most meaningful to me. Montaigne was integrating so many thoughts in those last essays about La Boetie’s involuntary servitude ideas, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism and his highly original thoughts about embodied consciousness and experience. The more time I spend with Montaigne’s later writing, the more work I feel is necessary on my reflections.

The second edition feels much closer to my philosophical stance towards Montaigne. However, I did notice while shaping it that this book doesn’t fully reflect how personal the Montaigne Project was in its 14 year span. Book 2 of the second edition feels closest to my original vision for the book, and is also the most personal.

All of this is to say that I don’t consider the Second Edition to be a definitive work about the Montaigne Project. I will continue to revise the work, putting some of my personality and reflections back in. I’m also hoping at some point to swap out the various Montaigne translations used in the text with my own.

Eventually, I also hope to wrap each Montaigne book, explaining how the first is mostly about La Boetie and his ideas, the second is an elaboration of Pyrrhonism, and the third is where everything comes together in an anti-system, where Montaigne’s lived experience leads to a philosophy of and for one.