Montaigne’s Essays

My best friend lived and died 400 years ago, and I’m pretty sure you might call him your cool friend, too, after you meet and hang out for a while. Not just for boys, in fact, please take this as a special recommendation to women who want to understand men. You’ll meet a human. You will encounter a soul.

Any translation will do, but English speakers might get a special kick out of the John Florio edition, the one Shakespeare read and loved. Read that second, of course. Montaigne isn’t some remote philosopher. He’s a bit of a character, as we say in Scotland.

Related friends you might want to invite to the afterparty/dinner party/coffee/drinking session: Sam Johnson, Shakespeare, Pepys. Modern authors that are kind and thoughtful guides are Alain de Botton, Sara Bakewell.