Essais

Essais, known in English as Essays, is a collection of personal and philosophical writings by the French writer Michel de Montaigne, composed in Middle French in three books comprising 107 chapters of varying length. Montaigne began writing around 1570 and continued revising and adding to the work for the rest of his life; the first edition, covering Books One and Two, appeared in 1580, a third book followed in 1588, and further additions were published posthumously in 1595. Montaigne described his purpose as an attempt to portray himself honestly, to record some traits of my character and of my humours, and the essays move freely across an enormous range of subjects, from friendship and cannibals to death and education, characteristically digressing from their stated topic into candid self-examination. The work is widely credited with establishing the essay as a literary form in European letters, and its skeptical, exploratory voice exerted lasting influence on both French and English prose and thought in the centuries that followed.