Showing results by author "Michel Eyquem de Montaigne" in All Categories

“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review)

Michel de Montaigne was a contemporary of Shakespeare who, after having played his part in France's terrible wars of religion, retired to his estates and decided to write about what he knew best--himself. And so in his likes and dislikes, his reflections on history, his loves and his travels, he brought to life, not just one man, but all human experience. "What do I know?" he asked. If not himself and his own soul, then nothing else.

One of the most remarkable figures of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne was a brilliant French philosopher and statesman whose work directly influenced René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isaac Asimov and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a humanist and a sceptic, with an insatiable and wide-ranging curiosity. In 1571, on his 38th birthday, he withdrew from public life and retired to the library in his castle tower, where he assembled a body of work that is still highly relevant today.

"C'est ici un livre de bonne foi, lecteur. Il t'avertit dès l'entrée que je ne me suis proposé aucune fin, que domestique et privée. Je n'y ai eu aucune considération de ton service ni de ma gloire." Montaigne

Les livres II et III des Essais de Montaigne de la présente édition sonore sont une sélection d'écrits dont les thèmes trouvent écho aux questions contemporaines.