Summary
Michel de Montaigne’s Essays are a monumental work of introspection, humanism, and skepticism, forming the foundation of the modern essay as a literary form.
Across 107 essays, Montaigne explores topics ranging from friendship, education, death, custom, vanity, and selfhood, to more philosophical meditations on truth, morality, and the limits of human reason.
Rather than arguing with strict logic, Montaigne adopts a deeply personal and conversational style.
He examines each subject not with authority but with curiosity, using himself as the primary subject of observation: “I am myself the matter of my book,” he famously wrote.