Testing one’s judgment
Follow how the Essays turn borrowed examples into a trial of judgment and a portrait of the writer in motion.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Begun around 1572 in the tower library of his château, the first two books were printed in Bordeaux in 1580; the Paris edition of 1588 added a third book and hundreds of additions. Montaigne kept annotating his own copy, and the posthumous edition of 1595 prepared by Marie de Gournay differs from that annotated Bordeaux Copy. Across three books and 107 chapters, Montaigne tests his judgment on reading, custom, friendship, cruelty, illness and death. The essays start from borrowed examples and quotations, then turn more and more toward a portrait of the writer himself, offered not as a model but as one instance of the human condition.
Following the arguments
Trial of judgment : An essay weighs a subject from several sides without claiming to settle it, so that the exercise of judgment matters more than the conclusion. Self-portrait : Montaigne declares himself the matter of his book and records changes of mood, body and opinion rather than a fixed character. Layers of revision : Later editions add passages without deleting earlier ones, so a single chapter can set side by side thoughts written years apart.
Continuing the reading
Begin with To the Reader, Of Idleness and Of Cannibals, then read Of Experience; an edition that marks the layers of 1580, 1588 and later additions shows how the thinking grew. Begun around 1572 in the tower library of his château, the first two books were printed in Bordeaux in 1580; the Paris edition of 1588 added a third book and hundreds of additions. Montaigne kept annotating his own copy, and the posthumous edition of 1595 prepared by Marie de Gournay differs from that annotated Bordeaux Copy.
An essay is valued less for its conclusion than for the honest exercise of judgment it records.
Your turn to think.
- Where does an essay stop reporting examples and start testing the writer’s own judgment?
- What changes when a later addition contradicts or qualifies an earlier sentence?
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