Excerpts from "Of Cannibals" (1580)

Reprinted in Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays

Translated by Donald M. Frame
Published in 1943

Today the essay is a familiar literary genre (form), which appears in books, magazines, and newspapers. It is now considered an ideal mode of self-expression that enables the writer to communicate his or her inner thoughts and feelings. Yet the essay was unknown until the late Renaissance period, when it was introduced by the French author Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592). The term essay was first used by Montaigne for short prose discussions. It comes from the French word essai, meaning "trial," "an attempt," or "testing." The informal essay as Montaigne understood and developed it is the method a writer uses to test his or her own views on life and the self.