Montaigne on reading

Abstract

Montaigne’s wide and critical reading contributed enormously to his writing. that we know more about Montaigne’s reading than any other Renaissance author. This chapter begins by discussing the books Montaigne read and the comments he made on his reading. It argues that we should take seriously his advice to read in order to become wise, by discovering one’s own views, rather than to become learned, by summarizing the views of others. It describes Montaigne’s method of writing in reaction to his reading by building fragments, such as axioms, proverbs, narratives and comparisons into logical sequences, using seven basic types of logical connection and the ways in which Montaigne uses quotations taken from history and poetry in the Essays, concluding with a discussion of the use of quotations in “Of vanity”.

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Peter Mack
University of Warwick

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