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Unread 11-02-2017, 09:34 AM
Cally Conan-Davies Cally Conan-Davies is offline
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Default Mason on Montaigne

Davey's review of a biography of Montaigne, now in the autumn issue of the Hudson Review, and happily it's part of their online content!

http://hudsonreview.com/2017/10/the-.../#.WfshkxiZNE4

It's a timely essay on the great essayist.
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Unread 11-02-2017, 09:55 AM
Aaron Poochigian Aaron Poochigian is offline
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Dave has payed homage to the essay form with a human as well as erudite review.
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Unread 11-03-2017, 11:38 AM
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Michael F Michael F is offline
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That is a thoughtful and learned essay, Cally. I read the selected MdM essays a few years ago and was also struck by his deep humanity and intelligence; the passages on human cruelty and the abuses of colonialism hit me hard. I think he’s correct that ‘writing is its own reward’, to phrase it thus commonly. Also, it strikes me now me that Zweig’s distillation of the 8 freedoms, while certainly redolent of the Stoics, also carries the delightful scent of the Upanishads and Whitman. Wisdom is wisdom, I might venture, though of course I’m not the first to…

I enjoyed the read. Thank you for posting it.
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Unread 11-03-2017, 10:31 PM
Susan McLean Susan McLean is offline
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Great review of a great man. I have been delighted with Montaigne's essays since I first encountered them. He really put the humane in humanism. Like Shakespeare's, his was a mind that spoke to mine across the centuries.

Susan
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Unread 11-03-2017, 11:35 PM
John Riley John Riley is offline
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A strong essay that convinces me I don't have time or energy for the book being reviewed. I'll stick with my Blackwell. Enjoyed reading this. Thanks for the notice.
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Unread 11-04-2017, 12:42 AM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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A nice essay on the essays. Montaigne is fairly challenging in French, but as Mason notes, the Florio version is one of the monuments of English prose. There are the Hazlitt and the Screech (the leading Anglo-Saxon Montaigne specialist, as I recall), but I'd go with the wonderful Florio, who was Italian and, neatly, contemporary.

Cheers,
John
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Unread 11-04-2017, 02:43 PM
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Catherine Chandler Catherine Chandler is offline
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Thanks so much for the link, Cally! I read Montaigne in my undergrad days when I was majoring in French Lit. In light of David's wonderful essay, I'll dust off my copy of Les Essais! Kudos on your poems in THR as well.
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