The Complete Essays

I only read book 1 for school. It was alright. There were moments when I was like "Wow! So true!" and moments when I wasn't understanding anything and couldn't find a consistant thought that I could try to analyze and either agree or disagree. Therefore: 2 stars.

Think of this book, not as something you 'ought to read', because of its historical and literary importance in heralding the birth of the essay, as an art form; consider it a delightfully charming insight into the musings, curiosities and experiences of a man, who around 500 years ago, put pen to paper, in order to organise and examine, his thoughts and feelings about everything that intrigues him about mankind and the world around him. This book is completely readable and thoroughly accessible - to the point where, after having become acquainted with the author and his idiosyncratic ways, one can often be found wondering #WhatWouldMontaineDo, at moments when the absurdity of life requires some timeless perspective and reflection. This is the man wrote an entire essay on cannibalism, refusing to see the tribe in question, as any more or less savage than we so called civilised people in Europe...before dashing all of his previously well thought out seriousness to pieces, with a final flourish of hilarity decrying all prior suggestions of these cannibal warrior tribesmen as noble or civilised, with a damning exclamation that "after all...they do not wear britches!" So eating fellow humans can be rationalised, nay forgiven even; but what sort of men don't partake in the wearing of trousers, right? Bloody weirdos! Buy this book and carry it around with you, to dip into whenever you've got 15 minutes to kill. Leave the looking up of external references made here and there, for when you get home. Just enjoy the brief glimpses of a 16th century potential shitlord, who will often make you laugh, but will mostly make you think.* *Unless of course you're a feminist, because you'll just scream 'Patriarchy' and lose your mind every time he mentions chicks & broads. Lol.