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Michel de Montaigne’s father had him brought up speaking Latin before French, by servants and a German tutor who spoke no French. In 1563 his closest friend, Étienne de La Boétie, died. On his 38th birthday in 1571 Montaigne withdrew to a tower on his estate near Bordeaux, with a library of about 1,500 books and an inscription on the wall, and began writing short attempts, essais, on anything that came to mind: cannibals, smells, cruelty, sleep, his own kidney stones. The first edition appeared in 1580. He served two terms as mayor of Bordeaux, added a third book in 1588 and kept annotating his own copy until he died in 1592. His motto was a question: “Que sais-je?”, What do I know? The ten writers below share his method: the self as the subject, doubt as the attitude, and the essay as a way of thinking aloud.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Essays · Philosophy · The art of living · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Montaigne, start with Seneca, whose Letters to Lucilius he quotes again and again. For the essay in English, read William Hazlitt’s Table-Talk (1821–1822), and for Montaigne’s life told through his own questions, Sarah Bakewell’s How to Live (2010). Further down is the philosopher who read him closely and set out to answer him.
10 authors like Michel de Montaigne
Where to start if you loved Michel de Montaigne
If you want a way in, read Sarah Bakewell.
How to Live (2010): Montaigne’s life through twenty answers from his essays.
If you loved the essays on death and friendship, read Seneca.
Letters to Lucilius: Stoic advice on living and dying, in short letters to a friend.
If you want the argument against him, read Blaise Pascal.
Pensées (1670): doubt as a torment rather than a rest.
If you want the essay in English, read William Hazlitt.
Table-Talk (1821–1822): one temperament, candid and combative.
If you want more Montaigne, start with a few essays.
“Of Friendship”, “Of Cannibals”, “That to Philosophise Is to Learn to Die” and the last, “Of Experience”. Translations by Donald Frame (1958) or Charles Cotton are good choices.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Michel de Montaigne
Who writes like Michel de Montaigne?
Seneca, William Hazlitt and Sarah Bakewell are the closest. Seneca is the Stoic he quotes most, Hazlitt the great English personal essayist, and Bakewell his best modern interpreter.
What should I read after Montaigne’s Essays?
Sarah Bakewell’s How to Live (2010), a life of Montaigne built from his essays, and Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius, the book he returned to most.
Is Montaigne like Pascal?
Pascal took much of his scepticism from Montaigne, but drew the opposite conclusion: where Montaigne found doubt restful, Pascal used it to argue that only faith could save us.
What does “Que sais-je?” mean?
It means “What do I know?” and was Montaigne’s motto, a sceptical question rather than a statement of belief.
Which Montaigne translation should I read?
Donald Frame’s complete translation (1958) is clear and modern. Charles Cotton’s seventeenth-century version, freely available online, has more period flavour; John Florio’s of 1603 is the one Shakespeare’s generation knew.
Which Montaigne essay should I read first?
“Of Friendship”, about La Boétie, is short and moving. “Of Experience”, the last essay he wrote, is the fullest picture of how he lived.
Sources
- Michel de Montaigne — Wikipedia
- Essays of Michel de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton — Project Gutenberg
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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“Reader, thou hast here an honest book”
— Michel de Montaigne, Essays, translated by Charles Cotton.
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