Lineages
Every great book stands on older ones. Homer gave Virgil his wanderings and his war; Virgil walked Dante through Hell. Start from a classic and follow its line, one work at a time, across the map.
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Its heirs
William Shakespeare, AD 1623
Gonzalo's dream of an ideal commonwealth on the island, with no trade, no letters and no magistrates, is taken almost word for word from Montaigne's essay 'Of Cannibals', in John Florio's translation.
Source: Wikipedia, The Tempest
“Also indicative of a New World setting are the name of Sycorax's god, Setebos, which derives from South America, and the source of Gonzalo's Utopia in Montaigne's essay Of The Cannibals (see also "Sources" above).” Read it there
Laurence Sterne, AD 1759
Montaigne, who wrote himself by digressing, contradicting himself and following his thoughts wherever they led, is one of the writers Sterne draws on and quotes most.
Source: Wikipedia, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
“Sterne also frequently draws on Essays by the sixteenth-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, Of Death by the early scientist Francis Bacon, Swift's Battle of the Books, and the Scriblerian collaborative work The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.” Read it there