Lord Montaigne (1533–1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre.

He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his work contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including René Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and perhaps William Shakespeare.

Much of modern literary non-fiction has found inspiration in Montaigne and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.

This complete collection of Montaigne's Essays consists of 107 essays that was first published in 1580, on which his reputation lies as the essential inventor of the literary form of essay.