Retiring from public life, Montaigne decided to keep a written record of his thoughts on the works he was reading, the events of his time, and the ordinary observations of his everyday life. The result was a new form of writing—the essay—in which the author sought to test his interests and ideas. With ruminations of friendship, skepticism, and the relativity of cultural values that display all of Montaigne’s humor, charm, erudition, and—perhaps above all—human fallibility, the Essays remains one of the most influential and accessible works of philosophical thought.