Reading Schedule
Conveners: Hall Bjørnstad (French & Italian) and Herbert Marks (Comparative Literature)
Text: The Complete Essays of Montaigne, translated by Donald M. Frame (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958); ISBN: 978-0804704861 (pb). The schedule of readings, below, refers first to the volume then the chapter number.
For those wishing to read the text in French, the three-volume edition by Pierre Villey (Presses Universitaires de France), available in paperback, is recommended, but other editions are fine too. {References in curly brackets are to Villey's edition.}
Starting January 23, 2026, the reading group meets Fridays, from 2 - 3:30, in Maxwell Hall 122, unless noted otherwise.
January 23
III.2 Of repentance
Recommended: Frame's introduction (pp. v-xvi)
January 30
To the Reader
I.8 Of idleness
II.6 Of practice
II.18 Of giving the lie
from I.28 Of friendship (first paragraph)
from II.8 Of the affection of fathers for their children (first paragraph)
from II.17 Of presumption (p. 478 first two paragraphs, 481 ["But to come to
my own ... but not in poetry"], 483– 487 ["As for the rest ... my blood as
my pains"], 494– 495 ["Memory is ... of which these are the essays"], 497– 499 ["Machiavelli's arguments ... roll about in myself"])
{= Villey 631-32, 635, 638-42, 651-53, 655-58}
February 6
I.19 That our happiness must not be judged until after our death
I.20 That to philosophize is to learn to die
I.37 Of Cato the Younger
I.50 Of Democritus and Heraclitus
--------------------------------------------------
from I.26 Of the education of children (p. 127 ["There are some men ... harms
its content"])
from I.40 A consideration upon Cicero (pp. 184–185 ["I know well ... get my
drift"])
from II.10 Of books (pp. 296-97 [beginning through the Propertius quote])
from III.9 Of vanity (p. 721 [beginning to "... conjure away this tempest"],
736–37 ["Reader, let this essay ... for such childish correction"],
761–62 ["This stuffing... to speak discordantly"])
{=Villey 171–72; 251; 407–409; 945-46, 963-65, 994-96}
February 13
from II.12 Apology for Raymond Sebond (pp. 318–21 [introduction to "... supernatural and divine"],
330–333 ["Presumption is our natural ... intelligence can do"],
361–62 ["But even if knowledge ... religion of any kind"],
371–376 ["Pyrrho and other Skeptics ..." through Lucretius quote],
379-81 ["I cannot easily persuade ... very beneficial in effect"],
384-85 ["Since man desired ... prepared for them that love him' (I
Corinthians)"],
389–93 ["However, we prescribe limits ... over a pair of scales"],
422–28 ["The position of the Pyrrhonians ... our century has produced"],
435–37 ["There is no combat so violent ... of his holy word?"],
446-47 ["The schools that dispute ... there is no knowledge"],
453-55 ["Now, since our condition ... continual change and motion"]),
457 ["To this most religious conclusion ..." to end])
{= Villey 438-441, 452-55, 490-91, 502-508, 511-14, 517-18, 523-27, 561-69,
577-79, 590-92, 600-601, 603-604}
February 20
I.1 By divers means we arrive at the same end
II.1 Of the inconsistency of our actions
II.11 Of cruelty
February 27
I.31 Of cannibals
II.30 Of a monstrous child
III.6 Of coaches
March 6
III.8 Of the art of discussion
[Spring Break]
March 27
III.5 On some verses of Virgil
April 3
Colloquium
III.11 Of cripples
April 10
III.12 Of physiognomy
April 17
III.13 Of experience (pp. 815–37 [beginning to "fairly with health"], 849– 857 ["I, who
operate ..." to the end]; skim 837-49)
{=Villey 1065-90, 1106-1116}
April 24 (Meeting at 2:30p)
III.2 reprise
Like the Essays, our readings will be promiscuously curious, but we shall focus on two of Montaigne’s major concerns: the riddle of personal identity in its relation to the act of writing. As Montaigne gradually came to understand, both entailed the mediation of autruy, namely, us his readers, with whom he carries on an implicit dialogue. The result is an endlessly surprising work, now candid, now slyly ironical, which develops its ideas not logically but rhetorically, thanks to a prose that is by turns elliptical, metaphorical, satirical, erudite, insouciant, intimate, and paradoxical, but always vigorous.