“Montaigne s’examine et ne peut se connaître” Portrait of Musset as a sceptical moralist

At a time when a major sceptical crisis is hitting the 19th century, Alfred de Musset seeks to ward off the helplessness and despair into which he is plunged by the general doubt that is the mal du siècle, by turning to the past. Montaigne appears as a model, direct or mediated, avowed or unconscious. Musset thus participates in the modern reinterpretation of the Essays, reread with attention by a new generation of authors. This article proposes to measure the degree of resonance of the aesthetics and ethics of these two moralists.