# HyperEssays: The *Essays* of Michel de Montaigne Online

## Front Matter: To the Reader 

Reader, here is an honest book. It warns you straight away that I only meant for it to be private, for my family, and never once considered either your service or my reputation. I do not have the strength for such a design. I wrote it for my relatives and my friends so that once I am gone (which may be soon) they may find in it again remnants of my personality and thoughts, and remember me in a more complete and lifelife way. Had I been seeking public attention, I would have made myself look better and presented myself more carefully. But I want you to see me as I am, in a plain, natural, and ordinary way, free of pretense and artifice. I am the one depicted here. My faults and my very self are exposed for all to see, at least as much as public conventions will let me. Had I lived among those nations, which (they say) still live under the sweet liberty of nature’s primitive laws, I assure you I would easily have painted myself quite fully and quite naked. So, reader, here I am, the subject of my book, and I see no reason why you should spend your free time on so unimportant and pointless a topic. Farewell, then! From Montaigne,[^1] March first, 1580.[^2]

This preface, corrected by the author himself, was lost in the first printing after his death. It has since been found.[^3]

### Metadata
Book:        n/a (front matter)
Updated:     June 26, 2026
Translation: HyperEssays (2020–26)
License:     Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
URL:         https://hyperessays.net/essays/to-the-reader/

### Notes
1. Michel de Montaigne’s estate, near Bergerac, France.
2. This is the date of the first publication of the *Essays* by Simon Millanges, in Bordeaux. Abel L’Angelier changed the date in his edition, the first to comprise all three books, to June 12, 1588. In his notes for a revised edition, Montaigne restored the original date.
3. This note appears in Marie de Gournay’s 1598 edition.