ESSAY

a literary composition of moderate length, dealing in an easy, cursory way with a single subject, usually representing the writer's personal experience and outlook. The form was invented in the late 16th century by the French writer Michel de Montaigne, who chose the name essai to emphasize that his compositions were attempts or endeavours, feeling their way toward the expression of his personal thoughts and experiences. The reflective Montaigne wrote about himself with startling frankness, capturing his fancies about the intimate things of life with superb skill and setting them down in a vivid and arresting way. His Essais, published in their final form in 1588, are still considered among the finest of their kind. Francis Bacon was the first great English essayist, although his Essayes (1597; enlarged editions in 1612 and 1625) are utterly different from those of Montaigne. The topics were grave and weightyOf Ambition, Of Truth, Of Great Place, and the likeand the style is lofty and often austere. Abraham Cowley (161867) was the first English writer of distinction to follow Montaigne's example, echoing the Frenchman's personal touch in such essays as Of Myself. In the 18th century the English essay enjoyed a great vogue, taking shape in the hands of such masters as Addison and Steele, Samuel Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith. Among the greatest of the English essayists was Charles Lamb (17751834), whose Essays of Elia, which began to appear in 1820, are universally recognized as landmarks of the genre. Lamb's essays combine humour, fantasy, and sentiment with a gift for perceptive observation of life, all expressed in a highly personal style. Another outstanding essay writer was Thomas De Quincey (17851859), whose works include such highly polished and imaginative pieces as On Murder as One of the Fine Arts and On the English Mail Coach. In the latter half of the 19th century, the essays of Robert Louis Stevenson are of the same class as those of Montaigne and Lamb, and he approached far more closely than his contemporaries to their level of excellence. In the United States the essay had been written with genius by Thoreau in Walden; and Emerson's Essays, though not in the tradition of Montaigne and Lamb, were rich in lofty thought and utterance. Although invented by a great French writer, the essay was very late in making itself at home in France. The admirable Causeries du lundi of Saint-Beuve (180469) are literary essays in the fullness of the term and have been the forerunners of much brillant essay writing in France. Other French essayists of special distinction are Thophile Gautier and Anatole France. All these were writers of literary essays, and it is in the analysis of manifestations of intellectual energy that the essay has been best illustrated in France. During the 20th century the essay has been reborn as a playful kind of literature, and such humorists as James Thurber and Dorothy Parker excelled in the art.