Montaigne

Stefan Zweig’s Montaigne is a reflective portrait of the French essayist as a model of inward freedom in an age of violence and fanaticism. Written during Zweig’s final exile, it treats Montaigne’s retreat into thought not as escape but as a disciplined way of preserving dignity, tolerance, and self-knowledge when public life turns coercive. The work is valued for linking moral independence to everyday habits of attention, doubt, and moderation, and for showing how an honest look at one’s own contradictions can soften judgment of others. It offers a humane ethics grounded in humility and resilience.