Friedrich considers the Montaigne of the Essays on of the first "moralists" in the French sense of the term, recording with anthropological fervor and in fresh, informal language the full spectrum of human thought and commerce as he saw it. Philippe Desan, who introduces this fine translation, commends Friedrich's holistic interpretation of Montaigne's unstructured creation, so often reduced by critics to its smallest fragments. Friedrich, says Desan, evokes "an epoch, distilled from accounts given by the best witness of the Renaissance."

“Originally published in 1949 in German, Hugo Friedrich’s masterful study of Montaigne and his era has stood the test of time and indeed is considered by many scholars to be the best single book ever written on the 16th-century French essayist.”—Choice