Essay is a short, nonfictional composition that presents the writer’s opinion or analysis of a particular subject. Essays make up a major form of literature that includes many types of writing, such as book reviews, magazine articles, and newspaper editorials.
There are two main kinds of essays, personal essays and formal essays. A personal essay is written in a casual, conversational style. A formal essay is carefully organized and more serious than a personal essay.
Personal essays
were originated by Michel de Montaigne, a French writer of the 1500’s. He was the first writer to establish the essay as a distinct form of literature. The word essay comes from Essais (1580), Montaigne’s two-volume collection of writings. Montaigne called this collection Essais, a French word meaning trials or attempts, because his compositions are exploratory and informal. They are based mainly on personal experience and discuss such topics as idleness, judgment, and lying.
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, two English essayists of the early 1700’s, wrote about the opinions and tastes of the English people. Addison composed clear, compactly written essays. Steele’s essays are more spontaneous and conversational. Addison and Steele published and wrote essays for two periodicals, The Tatler (1709-1711) and The Spectator (1711-1712). These periodicals helped make the personal essay popular.
Charles Lamb, an English author of the early 1800’s, wrote essays about the people and events in his life. Lamb’s essays contain interesting insights and are written in a casual, sometimes humorous style.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American writer of the 1800’s, composed witty personal essays. His best-known book, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858), consists of 12 essays that combine imagination, humor, and scientific fact. These essays supposedly describe a breakfast conversation at a boarding house. However, they actually express Holmes’s opinions on human nature, religion, science, and other topics.
H. L. Mencken was an American critic, editor, and journalist whose major essays were published during the early 1900’s. His essays, written in an aggressive, colorful style, criticized the attitudes of the American middle class.
The American author E. B. White became one of the few writers of the middle and late 1900’s to concentrate on personal essays. His writings have an informal, conversational style and deal with many topics.
Formal essays
were developed by Sir Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and statesman of the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. Bacon was the first English essayist. One of his major works was Essays (1597), a collection of 10 essays that explain how to lead a sensible life. These essays are short, impersonal, and informative, and they discuss such subjects as death, fear, truth, and wealth.
The English poet and essayist John Milton wrote the Areopagitica (1644), one of the finest examples of a formal essay. It is a persuasive appeal to Parliament to protect freedom of speech and of the press. It was printed as a pamphlet and distributed in London.
Alexander Pope, an English poet of the 1700’s, wrote formal essays in verse. In An Essay on Criticism (1711), Pope used verse to explain how poetry should be criticized. He also discussed the works of several major poets in this informative, clearly written essay. Pope’s other works include An Essay on Man (1733-1734) and Moral Essays (1731-1735). One of the most important sets of formal essays in the United States was The Federalist (1787-1788) by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Their 85 essays argued for the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Loading the player...An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope
The English critic William Hazlitt was one of the best writers of formal essays during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. He wrote a collection of critical essays called Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays (1817), in which he discussed the personalities of various characters in the dramas of William Shakespeare. Hazlitt’s writing is spontaneous but logically organized. He also wrote many fine personal essays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an important American essayist of the 1800’s. He wrote many formal essays about morals and philosophy. Emerson’s book Nature (1836) is an essay that explains the complex principles of transcendentalism, a philosophical movement that he helped establish in the United States.
Major American essayists of the late 1900’s and early 2000’s included Stephen Jay Gould and Susan Sontag. Gould discussed scientific subjects. Sontag wrote about many subjects, including politics, the arts, and popular culture.
