Book of a Lifetime Independent October 2008

My Book Of A Lifetime: The Essays, By Michel de Montaigne Reviewed by Jenny Diski Friday, 31 October 2008 In 1585 Marie de Gournay, an awkward 18-year-old who spent her days mooching in her father's small library, read the first two volumes of The Essays by Michel de Montaigne, then a man in his mid-fifties. She fell immediately in love. Her mother administered a dose of hellebore to bring her back to her senses, but she determined that one day she would meet the writer, because in all the wo...