AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE ESSAY
FROM ROBERT DIYANNI’S TWENTY-FIVE GREAT
ESSAYS
PLUTARCH
• 46-120 from Greece
• Parallel Lives,
influenced
biography
• Moralia, essays
SENECA
• Roman writer,
orator, philosopher,
and dramatist.
• common topics
• “Asthma”
• “Noise”
SEI SHONAGON
• Japanese court lady
• Wrote The Pillow Book
• Collection of poems,
advice, etc.
• Wrote in 10th century
KENKO (1283-1350)
• Poet and Buddhist
monk
• Brief fragmented
essays
• Compared to
brushstrokes of Zen
painting
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
• French essayist
• father of the
modern essay
• named the genre
“essais” meaning
attempts
• personal tone,
reveal himself
• his mind in the act
of thinking
FRANCES BACON
• English statesman,
scientist, and essayist
• father of the English
essay
• essays were short,
more impersonal than
Montaigne
• advice on how to live
THOMAS PAINE AND BEN FRANKLIN
• Wrote political essays
• The Crisis was his
periodical
• a series of pamphlets
encouraging the
Revolutionary War effort
• Famous for Common
Sense
• Poor Richard’s
Almanack
• famous for his
aphorisms:
• “Fish and visitors stink
after three days.”
• “Haste makes waste.”
• “A stitch in time saves
nine.”
SAMUEL JOHNSON AND ADDISON
AND STEELE
• English essayist
• Famous for his
satirical tone
• Published in
periodicals:
• The Rambler,
• The Idler, and
• The Adventurer.
• Teamed together to
publish in
periodicals
• The Tatler and The
Spectator
• These came out as
often as three times a
week.
JONATHAN SWIFT
• British author of
Gulliver’s Travels
• wrote the most
famous literary
satire, A Modest
Proposal
WILLIAM HAZLITT
• felt essays should have
“gusto”
• stressed the importance
of feeling in writing
• wrote “On the Pleasure
of Hating”
CHARLES LAMB
• The Essays of Elia
• He was a lifelong
bachelor.
• “A Bachelor’s
Complaint”
• Essays were playful,
passionate, and
highly opinionated.
FREDERICK DOUGLAS
• wrote about his struggle for
literacy as a black slave.
• “Learning to Read and
Write” is his famous essay
about his master’s wife
teaching him how to read.
• 1818-1895
EMERSON AND THOREAU
• Writing focused on
nature
• Essays came from
public lectures
• Aphoristic style
• “Hitch your wagon to
a star.”
• “Trust thyself.”
• “Give all to love.”
• Wrote about nature
• Most famous essay
was “On the Duty of
Civil Disobedience”
• Walden was his book
of essays.
• “If a man cannot
keep pace with his
companions, perhaps
he hears the sound of
a different drummer.”
GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950)
• Animal Farm
• 1984
• “Shooting an
Elephant” most
famous essay
• Wrote about
imperialism
VIRGINIA WOOLF
• 1882-1942
• Made stream of
consciousness style
of writing popular
• “Death of a Moth”
is her most famous
essay.
• Published essays in
“Common Reader”
E. B. WHITE (1899-1985)
• Wrote books for
children: Charlotte’s
Web and Stuart Little
• Wrote columns for
Harpers and The New
Yorker.
• Most famous essay is
“Once More to the
Lake”
• The picture is of White
and his dog Minnie on
the beach.
JAMES BALDWIN AND JAMES
THURBER
• 1924-1987
• Wrote about race
relations in American
and his place in
society as a black
man
• Became an expatriate
and lived in Paris
• “Notes from a Native
Son”: his essay about
his father.
• Humorist
• Drew satirical cartoons
• Famous for short story
“The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty”
• My Life and Hard
Times is his
autobiography.
• Is Sex Necessary: a
spoof.
CONTEMPORARY ESSAYISTS
• Joan Didion:
• Social issues in the 60’s.
• “Marrying Absurd”—Las
Vegas weddings
• Judith Ortiz Cofer:
• Dual culture and linguistic
identity
• Pico Iyer:
• “ No Where Man” – living in
many places and not
belonging to any social
group
• Tom Wolfe:
• One Life: Culture In the 60s.
• The Right Stuff: astronauts
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
CONTEMPORARY ESSAYISTS
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• racial prejudice and
injustice
• “Letter from Birmingham
jail”—famous essay
• Maxine Hong Kingston
• Power and place of
gender in traditional
China.
• “No Name Woman”
• Gretel Ehrlich
• writes about cowboys
and life in the West.
• N. Scott Momaday
• writes about Native
American tradition.
• Uses his grandmother’s
point of view.
• “The Way to Rainy Mt”
THE FIVE CLASSIC ESSAYS
•
•
•
•
•
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr
“Death of a Moth” by Virginia Woolf
“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell
“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White
COMPARING ESSAY TO SHORT STORY
• Fact
• Narratives
• Explain
• Personal essays use I
• Formal essays omit
first person
• Analytical
• Argumentative
• Fiction
• Have settings,
characters, conflict,
theme
• Imply
• May use different
points of view
Terms
• Aphorism –
• A pithy (or witty) observation that contains a truth
• Essaie –
• French word; may be less formal; may inform as
well as persuade; essays explain, while stories
imply.