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review 2017-03-19 08:00
How We Weep And Laugh At The Same Thing
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29) - Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne was apparently one the most important French Renaissance philosophers, but I had never heard of the good man before picking up this Little Black Classic which bundles six of his essays.

I was pleasantly surprised. His ideas were not particularly shocking (at least not today) but the meandering way in which it was written made for a nice read. However, while I liked this, I'm not really inclined into reading more of his essays.

Little Black Classics ~ 29

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review 2016-02-14 10:08
Review: How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Penguin Little Black Classic #29) by Michel de Montaigne
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29) - Michel de Montaigne

My summary:

There are 6 essays in total:

1. How do we weep and laugh at the same thing: conflicts of emotions, mind opener
2. On conscience: coinscience makes us fight with ourselves.''For why should pain make me confess what is true rather than force me to say what is not true?
3. Fortune is often found in reason't train: ??
4. On pushing cowardice: punishments: when?
5. On the vaniy of words: persuading people with words/speeches
6. To philosphize is to learn how to die: happiness and blessedness teach how not to be afraid of dying

 

My opinion:

I really liked all of them and they were very moving, except the third one. I think it was because of my lack of English to fully understand this essay. I've never heard of Michel de Montaigne before and because of this Little Black Classic I want to read more of his essays, but then maybe in Dutch. I always have loved philosphy books and this one did not disappoint me at all. I also really liked how the topics were so various and this is actually a Little Black Classic that didn't disappoint me, because this is what I had in mind with this collection.

 

I also created a shelf on my Goodreads account where I have an overview of all the Little Black Classic I've read so far, so if you want to buy/read one and want to know if I've read it and what my opinion was: click here.

 

Have you heard of Michel de Montaigne before and if so what have you read by him?

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review 2015-05-29 00:00
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29)
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29) - Michel de Montaigne Michel de Montaigne was a 16th Century French Renaissance philosopher and was the one of foremost essayists and contributed to making essays a popular literary genre.

How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing contains 6 short essays concerning philosophical contradictions, the most prevalent being that words are useless and actions are the only worthy thing, despite Montaigne being an essayist himself.

There have been a couple of Little Black Classics like this one, but somehow this one seems slow witted and less profound than any other. It was not written particularly well and I found myself having to re-read sentences several times in order to take in what Montaigne was saying. It did not flow quite so well, not did the language or writing style fascinate me.

There were one or two notable ideas, but otherwise Montaigne has nothing particular to say that hadn't already been said, and better, but someone else.
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review 2015-03-25 13:28
A French Aristocrat shares his personal opinions
The Complete Essays - Michel de Montaigne,M.A. Screech

    Normally I would wait until I have finished a book to write a commentary, however this book is a lot different in that is contains a large collection of essays on a multiple of subjects. Secondly, I have not been reading this book continually, but rather picking it up, reading a few essays, and then putting it down again. I originally read a selection of these essays but when I finished it I decided to get my hands on a complete version, preferably hardcover, and it has been sitting next to my bed for the last two years (and I am only up to the second book of essays as of this writing – in fact I have only written comments on essays from two of the books).
    This, as I mentioned, is a complete collection, however it is an older translation by John Florio, a contemporary of Montainge, which means that the English is quite archaic, though still quite readable. The only thing that stands out is the spelling (and since there was no real standardised spelling back then, this is understandable). Florio was also a contemporary of Shakespeare, so marking Florio down because of his spelling is sort of like doing the same with Shakespeare (and English has evolved a lot since then).
    Anyway, this post is actually quite long, in fact longer than what Goodreads allows me to post, so instead of spilling over into the comments, I have instead decided to post the commentary in my blog (which also allows for better presentation that Goodreads, though not by much since it is Blogger – I hope to go over to Wordpress sometime soon, but due to time commitments I am not able to at this stage).

Source: www.sarkology.net/2015/03/montaignes-essays-french-aristocrat.html
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review 2015-03-15 00:00
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29)
How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Little Black Classics #29) - Michel de Montaigne Montaigne, one of the most significant and opinionated philosophers of the French Rennaisance, raises questions and shares his perspective on a plethora of subjects, such as the punishment of cowardice, and the experience of conflicting emotions. During the breakdown of his thoughts he uses Latin, French and Greek quotes as well as historical examples, to demonstrate the truth of what he supports.
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