In October 1941, while Europe ceded to Hitler, scholar and novelist Stefan Zweig was in exile in Petropolis, Brazil. In the cellar of his damp bungalow he found a copy of Michel de Montaigne’s Essais. Zweig discovered in Montaigne a "fraternal spirit" of doubt and tolerance in a time of horror. This psychologically acute sketch of the essayist’s life was the last thing he penned before he committed suicide. Published in English for the first time and with an introduction by translator Will Stone, Zweig shows the father of the modern essay as a light in the darkness. The Essais are a fortification of the individual spirit against conformity – "he who sheep-like follows another follows nothing" – and an extended disavowal of ‘dogma’ and ‘definitive assertions’. What makes Montaigne’s life so interesting, however, is his dedication to self-doubt. In his library he painted 44 Latin maxims on the beams of the ceiling, and only one in French, which read simply: "Que-sais je?" What do I know?