Best essays
Wodehouse , whose behavior after his capture during the Second World War understandably baffled and incensed the British public. Find all five essays free online at the links below. And find some of Orwell's greatest works in our collection of Free eBooks. Wodehouse ". We're hoping to rely on our loyal readers rather than erratic ads.
The Top 10 Essays Since 1950
The latest series of essays are published this month. Buy Notting Hill Editions essays. Its parameters are so broad and slack that they encompass practically any shortish passage of non-fiction which makes a general argument. But, still, you could write 50, words about yourself, and it could be an essay in every regard.
Here are 10 that are exceptional in both departments. Not an original choice of writer, or of essay. But it would be churlish not to include the man who, more than any other writer over the last century, fine-tuned the form. He applied his essayistic touch to an extreme variety of subjects — the ideal pub, school stories, what makes England England - but this one, on how he became a writer, is my favourite.
The word "intellectual" often brings a lot of dull baggage with it. But Orwell's honesty and humour mean that you're never in danger of being bored. His four reasons for writing - aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, political purpose, sheer egoism - still seem unassailably true today. You might call Gellhorn's account of Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem reportage. But that just shows up the flexibility of the essay. A routine bit of reportage remains reportage; brilliant reportage leaps its chains and becomes an essay.
Gellhorn's essay begins with a straight description of the conditions in the court, albeit an atmospheric, closely-observed description: "The air conditioning was too cold, and yet one sweated. The seamlessly stitched combination of facts and thoughts becomes a compulsive essay. Evelyn Waugh considered life as a printer, cabinet-maker and carpenter before becoming a novelist.
He maintained an interest in the visual arts throughout his life; this plea in defence of the classical orders of architecture appeared some time after his literary success began. The essay is full of angry argument, deep architectural knowledge and lyrical description. You don't have to agree with the argument to be compelled by it — a rare thing in an essay. Montaigne is regularly wheeled out as the father of the essay. Debatable, I'd say — the baggy definition of the essay includes much older works.
Still, as well as being early on the essay scene, Montaigne was a natural essay-writer. His essay on cannibalism introduces devices that crop up again and again among the essayists that followed through the centuries. Taking the cannibalism of the Tupinamba tribesmen of Brazil, he uses it as a general analogy for barbarism. If you thought Steve Jobs's address to the graduating class of Stanford in was impressive, prepare to be even more deeply moved by Barrie's speech to the students of St Andrews University in , where he had been voted rector.
Ostensibly about courage, the essay is really about how to deal with the loss of friends and brothers in the first world war; it's aimed at those "who still hear their cries [of the war dead] being blown across the links". It opens up from the particular to the general, to the qualities needed to deal with such loss, and all with astonishing prescience: "By the time the next eruption comes it may be you who are responsible for it and your sons who are in the lava.
Capote is best remembered for his novels, but his non-fiction was exceptional: acidly witty, to the point of nastiness; hyper-observational, to the point of even deeper nastiness. But what is more enjoyable — or, often, truer — than nastiness? This is the essay-as-interview - in this case with Marlon Brando, at the height of his fame.
There's a good deal of nastiness, and racism — "You come see Marron? But it also gives a rare insight into the perils of celebrity: of too big an entourage, of isolation, of too many appetites being too readily satisfied. For dinner, Brando, on a diet, orders soup, beefsteak with French-fried potatoes, three supplementary vegetables, a side dish of spaghetti, rolls and butter, a bottle of sake, salad, and cheese and crackers.
Extremely well-known, but that doesn't take away from the effectiveness of Swift's satirical suggestion that the way for the Irish to beat their poverty was to sell their children to the rich as meat and leather. The best essays, like Swift's, use wit — not just to sugar the pill of heavy prose, but also to ramp up the argument beyond the merely prosaic statement of a thesis. Paine's pamphlet, anonymous at the time of publication, had a direct effect on the Declaration of Independence.
An argument in the real sense of an argument, it's as if Paine is shouting at you as he rips into the unfairness of a king on one island ruling a continent on the other side of an ocean: "If we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new Republican materials.
The course of a couple of centuries often turns writing a bit Olde Worlde and quaint. Not here. For all his reputation as the planet-sized brain of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin was better at the short sprint than the magnum opus. His lectures stick in the minds of those who heard them half a century ago. This essay is just as memorable.
The inspiration came from the Ancient Greek idiom: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Berlin then sifts through his storage room of a brain to divide writers into one or the other category. Tolstoy, who forms the heart of the essay, wanted to be a hedgehog but was really a fox. Other foxes include Aristotle, Montaigne and Shakespeare.
Plato and Proust are hedgehogs. All a bit reductive perhaps, but really enjoyable, and a useful boilerplate when it comes to considering the ideas of other writers. Normally, a newspaper comment piece would never be long, or substantial, enough to constitute an essay. But this article — justifying the appointment of Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, as Bishop of Reading — went way beyond tomorrow's-chip-wrapper material. The personal anecdote and light, jokey manner disguise serious thought and a deeply convincing argument; and the article becomes an essay.
Top 10s Best books. Harry Mount's top 10 essays. The author chooses his favourite examples from one of literature's most elastic forms, taking in everything from Montaigne to Martha Gellhorn.
Hand writing with a quill. Harry Mount. Published on Wed 30 Nov H arry Mount is a journalist, author and editor of the Notting Hill Editions Journal , which commissions a new essay every week. Buy Notting Hill Editions essays "There's not much point in trying to define an essay. Evelyn Waugh, A Call to the Orders Evelyn Waugh considered life as a printer, cabinet-maker and carpenter before becoming a novelist.
Michel de Montaigne, On the Cannibals Montaigne is regularly wheeled out as the father of the essay. JM Barrie, Courage If you thought Steve Jobs's address to the graduating class of Stanford in was impressive, prepare to be even more deeply moved by Barrie's speech to the students of St Andrews University in , where he had been voted rector. Truman Capote, The Duke in his Domain Capote is best remembered for his novels, but his non-fiction was exceptional: acidly witty, to the point of nastiness; hyper-observational, to the point of even deeper nastiness.
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal Extremely well-known, but that doesn't take away from the effectiveness of Swift's satirical suggestion that the way for the Irish to beat their poverty was to sell their children to the rich as meat and leather.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the following interesting subjects Paine's pamphlet, anonymous at the time of publication, had a direct effect on the Declaration of Independence. Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox For all his reputation as the planet-sized brain of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin was better at the short sprint than the magnum opus.
AN Wilson, In Defence of Gay Priests Normally, a newspaper comment piece would never be long, or substantial, enough to constitute an essay.
Charles D'Ambrosio – Documents. E.B. White – Once more to the lake.
Make sure that you read Cookie Policy at our website and know why we need cookies to enhance the service provided to our users. Click Accept if you agree or click Learn more if you still need to become familiar with the policy. At the beginning of each term, most students enter deadlines and other due dates from all their courses onto a master calendar. During certain time periods, mostly the last couple of weeks of a semester, the calendar is crammed full of deadlines. Assuming that you have impeccable English skills, you are motivated for the assignment, nothing unexpected occurs, and you are a good writer, the rush of work is usually not a problem.
Think essays are just something boring you write for class?
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
BEST ESSAY EDUCATION - HARVARD STRATEGIES FOR ESSAY WRITING
The latest series of essays are published this month. Buy Notting Hill Editions essays. Its parameters are so broad and slack that they encompass practically any shortish passage of non-fiction which makes a general argument. But, still, you could write 50, words about yourself, and it could be an essay in every regard. Here are 10 that are exceptional in both departments. Not an original choice of writer, or of essay.
17 Personal Essays That Will Change Your Life
Josh Kaufman is the bestselling author of books on business, entrepreneurship, skill acquisition, productivity, creativity, applied psychology, and practical wisdom. As part of my annual review process , I took a few hours to look through my research database for great essays and blog posts I read in Major research topics this year included business, entrepreneurship, learning, skill acquisition, productivity, psychology, health, science, systems, wisdom, and general life satisfaction. Of the posts I saved, here are a few of the best. You can also browse my selections from , , , and Note: these are essays I read and saved in Original publication dates for the essays themselves may vary. Lara Hogan: "Work At Different Management Levels" I remember working as a developer at a company and complaining that I had no idea what the bosses did all day. It felt like while we engineers were working hard and shipping stuff, managers just talked to a lot of people all the time, or sat in their offices behind closed doors, and I had no idea what their work looked like….
Now I want to share the whole list with you with the addition of my notes about writing.
Robert Atwan, the founder of The Best American Essays series, picks the 10 best essays of the postwar period. Links to the essays are provided when available. So to make my list of the top ten essays since less impossible, I decided to exclude all the great examples of New Journalism--Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Michael Herr, and many others can be reserved for another list.
10 of the Greatest Essays on Writing Ever Written
A good thing too, especially for all those aspiring writers out there looking for a little bit of guidance. Note: there are many, many, many great essays on writing. Bias has been extended here to personal favorites and those available to read online. Read on, and add your own favorite essays on writing to the list in the comments. Read it here. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention. This essay unpacks the formal elements of fairy tales, and does a fair bit more than hint at their essentialness to writers of all kinds. A key for those who see these as binaries, that is… Every writer is like a topsy- turvy doll that on one side is Red Riding Hood and on the other side the Wolf, or on the one side is a Boy and on the other, a Raven and Coffin. The traditional techniques of fairy tales—identifiable, named—are reborn in the different ways we all tell stories. Read a few excerpts here. I had to arrive at the brink and then take a leap in the dark. A gorgeous mini-essay from an American giant that is equally relevant to writers of poetry or prose, and is almost a poem itself. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
The Best Essays I Read in 2016
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays. Jennifer Baker. How can we keep kids safe? Is that even possible anymore? What pressures are educators under?
