"'Something happened to me,' he said after a short silence, 'that I could not turn into poetry. I have written both comedies and tragedies, but I could not fit it into either.'"
- 'The Roads Round Pisa', Seven Gothic Tales, by Isak Dinesen
Four centuries ago, in France, Michel de Montaigne wrote 107 essays over the course of 20 years. He composed a majority of them in the tower of his family's ancestral castle. His library of more than 1,000 tomes was adorned with inscriptions from the classics and the Bible. In his essays, he would quote directly from authors "the better to express himself", sometimes without attribution!
3 comments:
Which of Montaigne's works would you recommend that a neophyte commence with? :) Or do you have a favourite?
My favourite is his last essay, "On Experience", but it is a lengthy one. I recommend that a neophyte commence with his shorter, more piquant essays "On Books" and "On the Cannibals", just for a taste!
Hmmm, 'On the Cannibals' has piqued my interest indeed :) Will check it out!
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