essays of michel de montaigne

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The Essays of Michel de Montaigne Online

HyperEssays is a project to create a modern and accessible online edition of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne .

HyperEssays.net hosts four editions of the Essays :

A 1598 edition, in middle French , edited by Marie de Gournay. This is a slightly revised version of Gournay’s original edition published in 1595 .
A complete and searchable edition of John Florio’s 1603 translation of the Essays , in early modern English.
A 1685 translation by Charles Cotton , also in early modern English. Only some chapters of this edition have been copyedited and posted.
A complete and searchable modern edition of the Essays based on W. Carew Hazlitt’s 1877 update of Charles Cotton’s translation. I am slowly replacing the Cotton/Hazlitt translation with a contemporary one and adding new notes.

My goals with HyperEssays are to provide context and tools for first-time readers of the Essays and to design a lasting resource for all interested in Montaigne’s work.

To that end, I copyedit, update, and annotate the original text and its translations. I tag them for indexing and searching, and format them them for easy reading on smartphones, desktop computers, and tablets. In addition, I prepare and provide free chapter PDFs for offline reading.

You can help make HyperEssays a reliable online resource by supporting this project. With your contribution, this site can continue to grow and remain free and accessible to all.

What are the Essays about?

The Essays is not a single, cohesive book but a collection of short and long pieces on various subjects such as religion, horses, friendship, sleep, law, or suicide, which Montaigne wrote over more than twenty years . His goals for the book and the circumstances under which he worked on it changed over time .

The first edition, published in 1580, comprised two books. Eight years later, an updated edition included hundreds of revisions and a new, third book. By the time of his death, in 1592, Montaigne had planned many more changes, which were incorporated in the first posthumous edition of 1595.

So, while you can read the Essays from beginning to end, starting with Montaigne’s address To the Reader , you can also follow John Cage’s advice and “ begin anywhere. ”

Pick from a selection of some of the most well-known chapters:

To Philosophize Is to Learn to Die ,
On the Education of Children ,
On Friendship ,
On Cannibals ,
Apology for Raymond Sebond ,
On Some Verses of Virgil ,
On Coaches ,
On Experience .

Or look at the table of contents and let your curiosity guide you.

Who was Michel de Montaigne?

Michel de Montaigne, the author of the Essays, is often described as a sixteenth-century French philosopher. But was Montaigne actually a philosopher? And did he really retire from the world to write in solitude for years, as is commonly believed?

In On Montaigne , I address these questions and provide biographical context to better understand the Essays. The companion timeline provides a chronological overview of his life.

If you want to learn more about him, I recommend these four biographies of Montaigne (along with two modern translations of the Essays ). Each one is engaging but written with a different audience in mind.

Recent updates

Copy editing, translating, writing notes, updating metadata … the work never ends. This is HyperEssays’s work log, a list of the chapters I’ve been working on:

Dec 22, 2024 · De la gloire
Dec 22, 2024 · De la presomption
Dec 21, 2024 · On Repentance
Dec 21, 2024 · On Pedantry
Dec 20, 2024 · Let Others Judge of Our Happiness after Our Death
Dec 18, 2024 · Que nostre desir s’accroist par la malaisance
Dec 15, 2024 · Comme nostre esprit s’empesche soy-mesmes
Dec 15, 2024 · On Repentance
Dec 15, 2024 · De juger de la mort d’autruy
Dec 14, 2024 · Apologie de Raimond de Sebonde
Dec 10, 2024 · A Consideration on Cicero
Dec 9, 2024 · Apology for Raymond Sebond

Work on HyperEssays started on January 17, 2020 and likely won’t be completed for many years.

Ask the publishers to restore access to 500,000+ books.

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The complete works of Montaigne : essays, travel journal, letters

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IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by station03.cebu on February 9, 2022

Montaigne's Essays

Table of contents.

Florio's Preface
To the curteous Reader
Dedicatory Poems
The Author to the Reader

The First Booke

Chapter I. By divers Meanes men come unto a like End
Chapter II. Of Sadnesse or Sorrowe
Chapter III. Our Affections are transported beyond our selves
Chapter IV. How the Soule dischargeth her Passions upon false objects, when the true faile it
Chapter V. Whether the Captaine of a Place Besieged ought to sallie forth to Parlie
Chapter VI. That the Houre of Parlies is dangerous
Chapter VII. That our Intention judgeth our Actions
Chapter VIII. Of Idlenesse
Chapter IX. Of Lyers
Chapter X. Of Readie or Slow Speech
Chapter XI. Of Prognostications
Chapter XII. Of Constancie
Chapter XIII. Of Ceremonies in the enterview of Kings
Chapter XIV. Men are punished by too-much opiniating themselves in a place without reason
Chapter XV. Of the punishment of Cowardise
Chapter XVI. A tricke of certaine Ambassadors
Chapter XVII. Of Feare
Chapter XVIII. That we should not judge of our Happinesse untill after our Death
Chapter XIX. That to Philosophise is to learn how to die
Chapter XX. On the force of Imagination
Chapter XXI. The profit of one man is the dammage of another
Chapter XXII. Of customs, and how a received law should not easily be changed
Chapter XXIII. Divers events from one selfsame counsell
Chapter XXIV. Of Pedantisme
Chapter XXV. Of the Institution and Education of Children; to the Ladie Diana of Foix
Chapter XXVI. It is follie to referre Truth or Falsehood to our sufficiencie
Chapter XXVII. Of Friendship
Chapter XXVIII. Nine and twentie Sonnets of Steven de la Boetie, to the Lady of Grammont
Chapter XXIX. Of Moderation
Chapter XXX. Of the Caniballes
Chapter XXXI. That a Man ought soberly to meddle with judging of Divine Lawes
Chapter XXXII. To avoid Voluptuousnesse in regard of Life
Chapter XXXIII. That Fortune is oftentimes met withall in pursuit of Reason
Chapter XXXIV. Of a Defect in our Policies
Chapter XXXV. Of the Use of Apparell
Chapter XXXVI. Of Cato the younger
Chapter XXXVII. How we weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing
Chapter XXXVIII. Of Solitarinesse
Chapter XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero
Chapter XL. That the taste of Goods or Evils doth greatly depend on the opinion we have of them
Chapter XLI. That a Man should not communicate his Glorie
Chapter XLII. Of the Inequalitie that is betweene us
Chapter XLIII. Of Sumptuarie Lawes, or Lawes for moderating of Expenses
Chapter XLIV. Of Sleeping
Chapter XLV. Of the Battell of Dreux
Chapter XLVI. Of Names
Chapter XLVII. Of the uncertaintie of our Judgement
Chapter XLVIII. Of Steeds, called in French Destriers
Chapter XLIX. Of ancient Customes
Chapter L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus
Chapter LI. Of the Vanitie of Words
Chapter LII. Of the Parcimonie of our Forefathers
Chapter LIII. Of a saying of Cæsar
Chapter LIV. Of vaine Subtlities, or subtill Devices
Chapter LV. Of Smels and Odors
Chapter LVI. Of Praiers and Orisons
Chapter LVII. Of Age

The Second Booke

Chapter I. Of the inconstancie of our Actions
Chapter II. Of Drunkennesse
Chapter III. A Custome of the Ile of Cea
Chapter IV. To-morrow is a New Day
Chapter V. Of Conscience
Chapter VI. Of Exercise or Practice
Chapter VII. Of the Recompenses or Rewards of Honour
Chapter VIII. Of the Affections of Fathers to their Children: To the Lady of Estissac
Chapter IX. Of the Parthians Armes
Chapter X. Of Bookes
Chapter XI. Of Crueltie
Chapter XII. An Apologie of Raymond Sebond
Chapter XIII. Of Judging of others' Death
Chapter XIV. How that our Spirit hindereth itself
Chapter XV. That our Desires are encreased by Difficultie
Chapter XVI. Of Glory
Chapter XVII. Of Presumption
Chapter XVIII. Of giving the Lie
Chapter XIX. Of the Liberty of Conscience
Chapter XX. We taste nothing purely
Chapter XXI. Against Idlenesse, or doing Nothing
Chapter XXII. Of Running Posts, or Couriers
Chapter XXIII. Of Bad Meanes emploied to a Good End
Chapter XXIV. Of the Roman Greatnesse
Chapter XXV. How a Man should not Counterfeit to be Sicke
Chapter XXVI. Of Thumbs
Chapter XXVII. Cowardize the Mother of Cruelty
Chapter XXVIII. All Things have their Season
Chapter XXIX. Of Vertue
Chapter XXX. Of a Monstrous Child
Chapter XXXI. Of Anger and Choler
Chapter XXXII. A Defence of Seneca and Plutarke
Chapter XXXIII. The Historie of Spurina
Chapter XXXIV. Observations concerning the meanes to warre after the maner of Julius Cæsar
Chapter XXXV. Of Three Good Women
Chapter XXXVI. Of the Worthiest and Most Excellent Men
Chapter XXXVII. Of the Resemblance betweene Children and Fathers

The Third Booke

Chapter I. Of Profit and Honesty
Chapter II. Of Repenting
Chapter III. Of Three Commerces or Societies
Chapter IV. Of Diverting and Diversions
Chapter V. Upon some Verses of Virgil
Chapter VI. Of Coaches
Chapter VII. Of the Incommoditie of Greatnesse
Chapter VIII. Of the Art of Conferring
Chapter IX. Of Vanitie
Chapter X. How one ought to governe his Will
Chapter XI. Of the Lame or Crippel
Chapter XII. Of Phisiognomy
Chapter XIII. Of Experience

Incomplete texts without a source
Works originally in French
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