The Meaning of Solitude in Montaigne's Essays

Unlike the swashbuckling adventures of a Renaissance hero such as Benvenuto Cellini, the Essays of Michel de Montaigne present us with an introspective study of a Renaissance man. In the very year of Cellini's death, 1571, Montaigne retired at the age of thirty-eight from public life. His intention was twofold: first, to manage his estate at Montaigne, and secondly and more importantly, to study himself and and to write about this introspective study. It is true, of course, that Montaigne did not remain in retirement-he later served two terms as mayor of Bordeaux, and his estate was visited by both the Duc de Guise and Henri de Navarre-but, in 1571, he was determined to withdraw from society for a time in order to ponder the problem of death and the meaning of life. To this end, he had at his disposal an admirable subject for observation, namely himself. The success of his work is a proof of how well he is able to describe the thoughts that pass through his mind. That is no doubt why Donald M. Frame says: "The best book about Montaigne was written long ago, by Montaigne himself."1 This paper will focus on Chapter XXXIX of Book I of the Essays, a chapter entitled "On Solitude"; but with a writer as discursive as Montaigne, we cannot restrict ourselves to one section of the work. We shall, therefore, examine the Essays in general with the intention of determining Montaigne's meaning of solitude.