Here, Montaigne tackles the subject of anxiety and the extraordinary calm some people can show in the face of danger. He starts by noting that it’s normal to respond to anxiety with a quickened pace, as opposed to being frozen by fear: Reason ordains that we should keep to the same road but not to…

This essay mostly picks up where the last one left off, specifically on the question of the things we own and whether there should be laws limiting what people should consume. Those types of laws—knowns as sumptuary laws—seem crazy in our consumerist era, but were common in Montaigne’s France. He doesn’t argue in favor of…

In this recent batch of essays, there’s a growing self awareness in Montaigne about the body of work he’s producing and he’s putting it all into context. First, he tells his readers don’t judge me by the style of my writing, judge me by my ideas. Then he says, if these essays make me famous,…

For his 41st essay, Montaigne focuses on exempla—moral anecdotes used to illustrate a point. Or is it a parody of exempla? Exempla were common in renaissance writing and are virtually non-existent today. Or perhaps not–maybe the hero narratives that our culture clings to is just the modern day equivalent of them. It continues to annoy…

Through most of the early essays, while he’s still in the process of creating a brand new literary form, Montaigne maintains some ironic distance from his work, mocking the project while at other times criticizing his own tendency to jump from one topic to the next. In his fortieth essay, Montaigne finally begins to appreciate…

Other than his last, culminating essay On Experience, I have written most often on this Montaigne topic. It’s an evergreen subject, so that shouldn’t be surprising, and given that I’m most drawn to this project when I don’t have anyone to share my thoughts with, it makes sense. When Montaigne writes of solitude, it’s important…