Essays of Montaigne

“Indeed, Montaigne seems to have lived alone to write his Essays. He has no other book than this, and his life has no adventure other than this book. He says, "My book made me as much as I did my book."

I have chosen this sentence, which I took under the title of Preface III, written for the book by Sabahattin Eyüboğlu, the translator of the book named "Essays" published by Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, in order to feel the influence of the book Essays. It may be an exaggeration to say that this is the purpose of the life of the person who wrote this distinguished work, but it is an exaggeration that can be justified. As the pages go by and are embedded in the book, it seems that the author has meticulously focused on everything he writes. So, what does Michel De Montaigne tell in this work of Essays, which has officially become his life purpose throughout his life? The answer is a really good question: Himself. And by looking at him again, he tells about you, me and us. When we look at ourselves, Montaigne saw what we saw years ago and interpreted and observed what he saw. Then, for 20 years, he did not withhold from paper what he saw in himself and in life. In this article, which is not biographically detailed, I would like to make a superficial review of the Essays book.

Michel De Montaigne opened his eyes in Montaigne Castle in France on February 28, 1533, unaware that he would collect all kinds of knowledge, observations and experiences he gained during his 59-year life adventure in a comprehensive way in a single point, in a rooted work. Given to a German instructor who does not speak French at an early age, Montaigne is brought up by his instructor by learning Latin. He was also interested in Latin poetry as long as he studied at Guyenne College, which he went to, and we can understand this interest from the examples he gave in his Essays and his own thoughts by quoting Latin poems. With the death of his father in 1568, he becomes the owner of the Montaigne farm, and in 1571 he withdraws to his farm and begins to write his work. As of Montaigne's writing of Essays, we can say that he gave birth to a new literary genre.

”..and he understands all people who once understood the man in himself.*

After this biographical paragraph, which is very brief about him, I would like to touch on his work and what he said. Although the work is aimed at observing Montaigne's own self and the depths of his own existence and conveying what he has acquired as a result of these observations, in Montaigne's own words, "In every human being, there are all states of humanity", to observe one's own self, It turns out that it is equivalent to observing you, us. In his book, Montaigne told about himself and about us, and this is why we feel a closeness and do not feel alienated when we read the work.

Of course, the work is not only based on explaining us. Although most of them are like that, this work is ultimately about Montaigne's own thoughts, in which he describes himself; It is a work in which he tells his own thoughts about life and the facts of life, which is such a literary genre due to its essay type structure. We can consider these thoughts as thoughts that make us think and help us to make our lives better. Rather than making us insist on his thinking directly, Montaigne makes us think by thinking. After all, the most effective method is to make someone think with more superficial help than to help someone by thinking for him, and this is exactly the way Montaigne applied and chose.

In most writers I see the man who writes, in Montaigne the man who thinks.

Montesquieu / Essays, Reflections on Montaigne

We can say that these quotations provided the formation of Montaigne's thoughts, as we understand that he uses quotations from thinkers, philosophers or people who have taken place on the stage of history along with the Latin poems we come across throughout the book. Every second we read the book, we perhaps feel that an original set of thoughts is formed in Montaigne, which can be formed not only as a result of the sources it feeds on, but also by getting rid of those sources.

As a result

I strongly recommend that you read Michel De Montaigne's Essays, which allows us to look from different perspectives and will sink into the pages as we realize that we find traces of ourselves, as it conveys to us the importance of going on a journey in search of our own self, as well as the possibility that it will start a chain of thoughts in you. I would also like to point out that it should definitely be found in the libraries of those who like to think. Finally, I would like to conclude what I want to explain about the book with a section from the foreword written by Montaigne himself, under the heading To the Reader:

“Reader, there are no lies in this book. Let me tell you up front that I'm close here