Blending intellectual speculation with anecdote and personal reflection, the Renaissance thinker and writer Michel de Montaigne pioneered the modern essay form. This edition contains all of his idiosyncratic and timeless writings on subjects as varied as the virtues of solitude, the power of the imagination, the pleasures of reading, the importance of sleep and why we sometimes laugh and cry at the same things. Montaigne's complete Essays, translated by M. A. Screech, are presented here as a beautifully produced volume printed in two-colour, bound in blue cloth and embellished with gold foil. Praise for this translation 'An absolute treat . . . [Screech] is the master of Montaigne.' Roy Porter, BBC Radio Four 'Anglophones of the next century will be deeply in [Dr Screech's] debt.' Gore Vidal, The Times Literary Supplement