Rhetoric and Reading in Montaigne and Shakespeare

Shakespeare and Montaigne are the English and French writers of the sixteenth century who have the most to say to modern readers. Shakespeare's plays and Montaigne's Essais are always present in lists of the world's fifty great books and both are crucial components of set reading lists for school and university courses in English and French literature. This fascinating and rigorous book explores the relationship between the work of these great writers in the light of their rhetorical training. It draws on the extensive literature of both writers and goes far beyond most comparisons of their work, which generally concentrate on when Shakespeare first read Montaigne.