The Art of the Essay: Fifty Classic Masterpieces

Aldous Huxley recognized the special strength of the essay form “for saying almost everything about almost anything.”

In 50 classic masterpieces, this collection testifies to Huxley’s words. The essays span a period of two-thousand years, and demonstrate the rich stylistic variety within the form. The divagatory style of Montaigne, who confesses, “I cannot keep my subject still. It goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness.” , forms a counterpoint to the studied rigour of David Hume, and the oracular brilliance of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alongside essays from these masters, appear some of the finest prose works by G.K. Chesterton, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, and William Hazlitt.

As with other Elsinore Books anthologies, we have favoured a thematic arrangement over a chronological one. The collection is divided into seven parts, with seven essays apiece. Our themes are: 1) Humour and Satire, 2) The Good Life, 3) Learning and Knowledge, 4) Philosophy, Politics and Religion, 5) Literature and Writing, 6) Nature and Travel, and 7) Miscellaneous Reflections. The collection is introduced by a short G.K Chesterton essay on the nature of the form itself.

At Elsinore Books we pride ourselves on creating beautiful Kindle Books, and devote great attention to formatting, and ease of navigation. This book contains a cleanly-styled contents page that permits easy movement between essays. The main contents page is accompanied by an alphabetically organized index of authors to help you locate specific essays.

Complete listing of contents:


Introductory Essay
The Essay — G. K. Chesterton

Part 1: Humour and Satire
On Running After One’s Hat — G. K. Chesterton
The Clothing of Ghosts — Ambrose Bierce
From Popular Fallacies — Charles Lamb
Shaking Hands — Edward Everett
Advice to Youth — Mark Twain
Ogres — William Makepeace Thackeray
A Modest Proposal — Jonathan Swift

Part 2: The Good Life
Circles — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance — Ralph Waldo Emerson
On the Shortness of Life — Seneca
Live Unknown — Plutarch
Good Humour — Samuel Johnson
An Apology for Idlers — Robert Louis Stevenson
On Old Age — Cicero

Part 3: Learning and Knowledge
Of Studies — Francis Bacon
Of Books — Michel de Montaigne
The American Scholar — Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Study Of Life Not To Be Neglected For The Sake Of Books — Samuel Johnson
In Defence of Ignorance — A. G. Gardiner
The Old and the New Schoolmaster — Charles Lamb
Limits of the Human Mind — Voltaire

Part 4: Philosophy, Politics and Religion
Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment? — Immanuel Kant
On Thinking for Oneself — Arthur Schopenhauer
Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual — John Stuart Mill
Civil Disobedience — Henry David Thoreau
Of Atheism — Francis Bacon
Thoughts of God — Mark Twain
Of Miracles — David Hume

Part 5: Literature and Writing
The Poet — Ralph Waldo Emerson
How Should One Read a Book? — Virginia Woolf
On Familiar Style — William Hazlitt
The Study of Poetry — Matthew Arnold
The Art of Fiction — Henry James
Why a Classic Is a Classic — Arnold Bennett
On Style — Arthur Schopenhauer

Part 6: Nature and Travel
Walking — Henry David Thoreau
On Going a Journey — William Hazlitt
On Spring — Samuel Johnson
A Wind-storm in the Forests — John Muir
Nature — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Night Walks — Charles Dickens
Walking Tours — Robert Louis Stevenson

Part 7: Miscellaneous Reflections
New Year’s Eve — Charles Lamb
On National Prejudices — Oliver Goldsmith
On Giving Advice — Joseph Addison
On The Pleasure of Hating — William Hazlitt
On Lying in Bed — G. K. Chesterton
Of Cannibals — Michel de Montaigne
The Death of the Moth — Virginia Woolf