Montaigne's Politics Authority and Governance in the Essais [Hardcover]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) is principally known today as a literary figure--the inventor of the modern essay and the pioneer of autobiographical self-exploration who retired from politics in midlife to write his private, philosophical, and apoliticalEssais. But, as Biancamaria Fontana argues inMontaigne's Politics, a novel, vivid account of the political meaning of theEssaisin the context of Montaigne's life and times, his retirement from the Bordeaux parliament in 1570 could be said to have marked the beginning, rather than the end, of his public career. He later served as mayor of Bordeaux and advisor to King Henry of Navarre, and, as Fontana argues, Montaigne'sEssaisvery much reflect his ongoing involvement and preoccupation with contemporary politics--particularly the politics of France's civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. Fontana shows that theEssais, although written as a record of Montaigne's personal experiences, do nothing less than set forth the first major critique of France'sancien r?gime, anticipating the main themes of Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire and Diderot. Challenging the views that Montaigne was politically aloof or evasive, or that he was a conservative skeptic and supporter of absolute monarchy, Fontana explores many of the central political issues in Montaigne's work--the reform of legal institutions, the prospects of religious toleration, the role of public opinion, and the legitimacy of political regimes.

Biancamaria Fontanais professor of the history of political ideas at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her books includeRethinking the Politics of Commercial SocietyandBenjamin Constant and the Post-Revolutionary Mind. Drawing on the historical research of Geralde Nakam and others, [Fontana] illuminates the political dimension of the work by reading it against precise contexts. . . . A more historically grounded political understanding of lãA