Over a period of 20 years, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) wrote a myriad of essays spanning such topics as education, death, dying, torture, friendship, imagination, solitude, skepticism, inconstancy, vanity, witchcraft, love, sex, politics, and more. In this class, we will read and discuss the most important of his essays, seeing which of his ideas remained constant and which evolved over time. By the end, you’ll have discovered how Montaigne epitomizes Renaissance secular thinking and heralds the modern world.