Books by and about the French Renaissance essayist
At the age of thirty-eight, after spending the first two-thirds of his life in intense political and civic activity, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) retired to his estate to think, read, and write -- to capture his thoughts. In so doing, he invented the essay (or, as he called it, the essai, meaning an attempt, test, or trial). Montaigne's essays were a departure from established, traditional approaches to composition: they were brief and personal, not comprehensive and institutional; idiosyncratic reflections, not discourses on religious, legal, or philosophical topics.
