The Complete Essays of Montaigne

For me the greatest approbation for a book I've just read is a simple declaration that this is a book I'll read again, and perhaps one that I'll read regularly. This is a desert island work for sure. It (for me) fits into the same mental shelf space as Marcus Aurelius' Meditations or Herodotus' The Histories or Adams' The Education of Henry Adams. Some pieces of nonfiction should probably be considered a type of humanist sacred-text. One more book I've got to grab if the house is on fire. One more book I will forever be buying extra copies of so I can fop them off on unprepared friends.

I do not advise making this your only book for a while. Download the essays chapter by chapter, listen to one here, one there. They are great contemplations, full of spice, and wonder, and charm, and folk stories. I am still greatly adoring to know that French school girls were told not to play hopscotch or their inner manhood equipment might fall out of their lady regions and they would be boys- wow! People were so inventive with their bullplop. Our quacks should take lessons, the crap our senators and health wonder pill spinsters come out with is so tedious and common by comparison! Montaigne is great to relax to, great to muse over, and the narrator simply feels like the man himself, conjured by seance. I cannot praise him highly enough. A masterful, perfect production from all sides and accounts. I have more to go through, and some of the essays are tedious or stray, but hey, the man invented the essay and this sort of book. Certainly something any ponderer or intelligent person should take time to peruse a little at the very least in their lifetime. Let's not make a dali lhama of Montaigne though. He was not a world-altering genius or anything. This will enrich your life, probably not change it.

If you like Shakespeare you'll love Montaigne. Excellent choice or narrator for Montaigne, and a good modern translation.

As much as I have enjoyed so many audible titles, this is by far the best of all. I will always look back on 2012-13 as my year with Montaigne. I have every intention of picking up a copy of this work (in this translation) as a permanent fixture on my desk.

Montaigne and I may have some philosophical and thrological disagreements on details but he is the most pleasant of companions.

Throughout the work, Mr Lane allowed Montaigne speak through him

Meet yourself here.

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

Both are long, basically autobiographical works. Though Proust is writing a novel, and Montaigne essays (the form he is credited with initiating), both move through the lives, experiences and reflections of the writers referencing contemporary historical events and social environments. The books share a fearless intimacy relative to personal habits, tastes and psychological states as well as generalizations about the nature of humankind.

Surprising to me, both works are quite funny in parts.

Christopher Lane is an excellent reader. It's great to listen to the essays while doing menial tasks or relaxing at the end of the day.

An utter delight for fans of eight hour films

Experts seem to concur that Donald Frame's is the best English language translation.