Subject: Literary Essays
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A Cynic Looks at Life Ambrose Bierce
A collection of essays in which Bierce talks about modern civilization and all its faults, the death penalty and many others. His arguments are still relevant to issues of today. Ambrose Bierce was well known for his biting wit and cynical approach to life. read more »
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A Dissertation upon Roast Pig Charles Lamb
A rapturous appreciation of pork crackling, a touching description of hungry London chimney sweeps, a discussion of the strange pleasure of eating pineapple and a meditation on the delights of Christmas feasting are just some of the subjects of these personal, playful writings from early nineteenth-century essayist... read more »
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All Things Considered G. K. Chesterton
All Things Considered features more than thirty columns that G. K. Chesterton wrote for the London Daily News in the years before World War I. Covering a variety of themes, each is written with the same high quality that readers have come to expect of Chesterton. In an essay on canvassing, Chesterton ponders some... read more »
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And Even Now Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm was a British caricaturist and parodist. As a young man he was considered quite the wit and spent much time in London society. By 35 he was middle aged and a bit dull. Beerbohm was drama critic for the Saturday Review and later did broadcast radio work. This collection of essays includes A Relic, How... read more »
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English Traits Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson traveled broadly in England and Scotland in 1833 and again on lecture tour fifteen years later. Drawing on his experiences there as well as his wide reading in British history, he set forth in English Traits his view of the English as a nation. English Traits is a searching and distinctive portrayal of... read more »
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Essays Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was first known as an orator but converted many of his orations in to essays. This his second books was first published in 1841 and includes the famous essay, "Self-Reliance." His aunt called it a "strange medley of atheism and false independence," but it gained favourable reviews in London and... read more »
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Eugenics and Other Evils G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils. Its advocates regarded eugenics as a social philosophy for the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.Today it is widely regarded as a brutal... read more »
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Excursions Henry David Thoreau
Excursions contains the complete texts of nine of Thoreau's most popular essays. These include Natural History of Massachusetts, his first essay to appear in The Dial (a quarterly periodical edited by Margaret Fuller), as well as other well known early works like A Winter Walk and The Landlord. Later works include... read more »
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Heretics G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton, the "Prince of Paradox", is at his witty best in this collection of twenty essays and articles from the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on "heretics" — those who pride themselves on their superiority to conservative views — Chesterton appraises prominent figures who fall into that... read more »
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Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow Jerome K. Jerome
Published in 1886 and dedicated to the writer’s ally in idling—his pipe—this collection of entertaining essays established Jerome K. Jerome as an eminent English wit. "What readers ask nowadays in a book is that it should improve, instruct, and elevate. This book wouldn’t elevate a cow. I cannot... read more »
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Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson
Originally published anonymously, Nature was the first modern essay to recommend the appreciation of the outdoors as an all-encompassing positive force. Emerson’s writings were recognized as uniquely American in style and content, and launched the idea of going for a walk as a new way of looking at the world... read more »
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On Stories C. S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis is widely known for his fiction, especially his stories of science fiction and fantasy, for which he was a pioneering author in an age of realistic fiction. He lays out his theories and philosophy on fiction over the course of nine essays, including this one, On Stories. Along with discussing his own... read more »
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Pagan Papers Kenneth Grahame
Years before he wrote The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame published a very different sort of book: Pagan Papers, a wry, witty, wide-ranging collection of eighteen irresistible essays. Strolling, loafing, smoking, collecting books and pondering, the author muses on the human condition. What to do about relatives... read more »
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Politics and the English Language George Orwell
Politics and the English Language is widely considered Orwell's most important essay on style. Style, for Orwell, was never simply a question of aesthetics; it was always inextricably linked to politics and to truth. 'All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and... read more »
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The Case Of Wagner Friedrich Nietzsche
The Case Against Wagner was one Nietzsche's last books, and his wittiest. In Wagner's music, in his doctrine, in his whole concept of art, Nietzsche saw the confirmation, the promotion, even the encouragement, of that decadence and degeneration which is now rampant in Europe; and it is for this reason, although to... read more »
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The Conduct of Life Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Conduct of Life is among the gems of his mature works. First published in the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as President, this work poses the questions of human freedom and fate. The book, here newly edited from the original 1860 edition and fully annotated to illuminate and trace... read more »
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The Lion and the Unicorn George Orwell
Orwell's moving reflections on the English character and his passionate belief in the need for political change. The Lion and the Unicorn was written in London during the worst period of the blitz. It is vintage Orwell, a dynamic outline of his belief in socialism, patriotism and an English revolution. His fullest... read more »
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The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving
This collection of stories from Washington Irving includes some of America's best-known works of fiction-such as the famous Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow-as well as lesser-known works as The Specter Bridegroom, Westminster Abbey, English Writers on America, Stratford on Avon, The Art of Bookmaking... read more »
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The Sunny Side A. A. Milne
The Sunny Side gathers the best short works by the inimitable A. A. Milne. Written for the satire magazine Punch, these brief stories and essays perfectly capture Milne's sly humor, beguiling social insight, and scathing wit. From Odd Verses to War Sketches, Summer Days to Men of Letters, Milne takes his readers... read more »
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Three Guineas Virginia Woolf
Three Guineas is written as a series of letters in which Woolf ponders the efficacy of donating to various causes to prevent war. In reflecting on her situation as the 'daughter of an educated man' in 1930s England, Woolf challenges liberal orthodoxies and marshals vast research to make discomforting and... read more »
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Transposition and Other Addresses C. S. Lewis
This book contains a selection of the too numerous addresses which Lewis gave during the late war and the years that immediately followed it. All were composed in response to personal requests and for particular audiences, without thought of subsequent publication. As a result, in one or two places they seem to... read more »
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Walking Henry David Thoreau
In this essay, first published in 1862 and vital to any appreciation of the great man's work, Thoreau explores: the joys and necessities of long afternoon walks; how spending time in untrammeled fields and woods soothes the spirit; how Nature guides us on our walks; the lure of the wild for writers and artists; why... read more »
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Write It Right Ambrose Bierce
Several hundred of Bierce's pet peeves. Bierce's list includes some distinctions still familiar today--the which-that rule, less vs. fewer, lie and lay -- but it also abounds in now-forgotten shibboleths: Ovation, the critics of his time agreed, meant a Roman triumph, not a round of applause. Reliable was an... read more »
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