What Do I Know?: Essential Essays

What Do I Know?: Essential Essays

A fresh new translation of Michel de Montaigne’s most profound, searching essays, with an introduction from Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose This gift-worthy collection of 16 essays by “the father of the essay” is a short, accessible introduction to his work, offering a fascinating glimpse inside a great Renaissance mind “I myself am the subject of my book.” So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays , the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form. In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal observation to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement. This new selection of Montaigne’s 16 most ingenious essays appears in a lucid new translation by the prize-winning David Coward. What Do I Know? gives the modern reader profound insight into a great Renaissance mind. What Do I Know? is divided into 3 sections and includes: MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE On Sorrow, On how our Actions are to be judged by the Intention, On Idling, On Liars, That we should not be considered happy until we are dead ON THE PURSUIT OF REASON On Fear, To tell true from false, it is folly to rely on our own capacities, How we can cry and laugh at the same thing, On Solitude, On the Uncertainty of our Judgement, On Drunkenness ON GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNORS On Cannibals, On the Inequality that exists between us, On Sleep, On our lease of life, On Carriages Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was born on his family estate in Aquitaine, not far from Bordeaux. Raised speaking Greek and Latin, he studied law before embarking on a career of public service, first as a counselor of court in Périgueux and Bordeaux, then as a courtier to Charles the IX. Following the death of his father, Montaigne retired from public life to the Tower of his château to read and write. He published the first two volumes of his landmark Essays in 1580, with a third following in 1588; the complete Essays appeared posthumously in 1595. David Coward is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Leeds and a translator of many books from the French, including Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret series and Arthur Cohen's Belle du Seigneur , for which he was awarded a Scott Moncrieff Prize. To the Reader   This, Reader, is a book written entirely in honest good faith. From the start, it forewarns you that in it I have no purpose other than to interest kin and self. I have not set out to flatter your notion of things and have given no thought to my reputation. Such ambitions are beyond my powers. I dedicate my book to the particular use of my family and friends so that, having lost me (as they shall in the near future), they will be able to recover some few evidences of my character and moods, and that in this way they might acquire a fuller and clearer understanding of me. If my purpose had been to seek the world’s favour, I should have appeared in borrowed plumes and followed a more orderly scheme of exposition. But I wish to be seen in my simple, natural and ordinary character, with no axe to grind and without artifice: for here I paint myself. My faults will show up bright in these pages as will my artless nature, insofar as respect for the social conventions allow. Had I lived my life among the nations which are said still to enjoy the freedom of nature’s primitive laws, I assure you that I should readily have drawn myself, whole and bare naked.            Therefore, Reader, I myself am the subject of my book. This being so. there is no reason why you should devote your leisure time on so trivial and unprofitable a topic.            And so farewell.            At Montaigne, this first day of March, one thousand five hundred and eighty.       PART ONE     MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE   Montaigne declared himself to be the subject of his book, his main purpose being to follow the injunction inscribed over the entrance to the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi: ‘Know Thyself’. His thoughts were rooted in this clear-sighted estimate of the strengths and limitations of his mind and emotions. While his personality permeates his ideas, there are times when he slipped into self-examination by providing more direct ‘evidences’ of his characters and moods, revealing more clearly his engaging personality [RW1] .   1 On  Sorrowing  (Book I, 2 )       I am one of those people who are little affected by an emotion for which I have little patience or regard, although most people, apparently by some common accord, have chosen to honour it by presenting it in a most favourable light. They dress it up as inner strength, courage and tender conscience – such a foolish, monstrous idea!  More fittingly, the Italians have found another word for it: tristezza [RW2] . For it is always a harmful state of mind, invariably irrational and unfailingly cowardly and base – an emot