Selected Essays [antikvár]

The translation and selection are my own. They are basedon the conviction that the average reader of today can findenjoyment and profit in a faithful English version of Mon-taigne; that the complete Essays are long enough to givepause to any but the most determined reader; and that thefreshest and most important part of Montaigne, certainlyfor our time and probably for all time, is his pursuit of moralindependence and a reasonable, happy way of life. I haveincluded only complete essays, which means omitting somethat are important (like the "Apology for Raymond Sebond,"a book in itself), but which gives a more faithful impressionof his writings and of the leisurely, digressive method thatis a part of his charm. My aim in selecting the fourteen essaysthat follow has been to present as full a picture of the manand his ideas as is possible in a volume of this size.A new translation seems to require some justification. FiveEnglish translations already exist, and some revisions. Thatof Florio (1603), though picturesque, is too much Florio:often inaccurate, often wordy, often flowery. Cotton (1685-1693) and his revisers, though clearer, are still inaccurate,and too abstract to do justice to Montaigne's vivid concrete-ness. While the translation of Ives (1925) has many merits,it is sometimes stiff. His refusal to put some of Montaigne'svx