Title: Montaigne
Author: Stefan Zweig. Translation and Introduction by Will Stone
Published: Pushkin Press / Kindle 2015
First published 1941
I regret to say that I had not previously read anything by Stefan ZWEIG (1881-1942). However, I was intrigued to follow up on a recommendation to read this small volume on Montaigne, whose lifestyle and essay writing I have long found fascinating.
What struck me most in this short biography is the overlap with Zweig's own situation in fleeing the Nazi onslaught of the 20th century to Montaigne's position as a renaissance philosopher and essayist amid societal upheaval at the end of the 16th century. There are clear resonances with our modern
world and I found myself on several occasions marking material that could apply just as much to today as it did in those earlier periods.
There is a substantial introduction to the book by Will Stone who translated the original and in his observations there was also much to highlight and think about. In essence then, this is a short book, that took only a couple of hours to read but whose lessons persist in the memory.
I noted some and think they bear close attention as the issues examined are of recurring concern.
Here is one on Rattling chains:
"It seemed to our generation that Montaigne was simply rattling chains we thought long since broken and we could never imagine that in fact Fate had reforged them for us, far crueller and stronger than ever before". (p40)
Another on Essential Values:
"For one of life's mysterious laws shows that we only notice the authentic and essential values when it's too late". (p40)
And on Freedom:
"The true essence of freedom is that it can never restrict the freedom of another". (p109)
I thought about Zweig and Montaigne earlier this evening when I listened to a discussion between two politicians. One of them was espousing older, time-honoured values of humanity, rights and freedoms while the other insisted that times had changed and those values were no longer relevant to the modern world. I have to say that I instinctively recoiled when I heard the latter. I read once that you only really know what your values are when they are offended so I will need to explore that recoil to better understand it. But I find it fascinating that Zweig in his time of peril found comfort and direction
in Montaigne's essays from 300 years earlier.
The lesson seems to be that we should be open to those human values and not to shrink into ourselves as
"the more we reduce our space, the more petty concerns prey on us". (p122)
The short book is full of such mind-expanding thoughts. However, I want to close with this one from three centuries ago that I have chosen as an antidote to the swirls of negativity, fear and doom mongering that I increasingly sense all around:
"My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which have never happened."
Michel de Montaigne
More:
Check out this Wikipedia article on Stefan ZWEIG
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