Nietzsche and Montaigne: Concepts of Style

Nietzsche was an enthusiastic reader of Montaigne and loved the humanist's intellectual and physiological disposition which was similar to his own. The nature of this literary relationship is difficult to determine, because the traits that might make Montaigne a prominent figure in Nietzsche's text are exactly the ones that Nietzsche either internalizes completely or overdraws the most. One element which can be discussed in a contrastive analysis of both writers is that of style. My article shows that Nietzsche's style is formed by Montaigne's writing “en chair et en os”, by the imperceptibly subversive tums of his sentences as well as by the slyly ironic tone that prevails in many essays. This style goes hand in hand with an open form that has been influenced by the essay