Development & Tradition of the Essay

Objective

In this section, the historical development of the essay will be discussed.

The essay, a term first coined in the sixteenth century, is a brief prose composition that presents ideas and opinions about a single topic. The word essay comes from the French word essai, which means “an attempt.”

The following table describes different types of essays.

In 1580, French philosopher Michel de Montaigne originated the essay genre when he published his multivolume work titled Essays. Montaigne wrote familiar essays on topics such as death, friendship, virtue, education, politics, friendship, and human nature. The importance of Essays rests with Montaigne’s originality; he focused on human nature rather than academic learning and theories.

In 1597, Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and statesman, published Essays and Counsels, a collection of brief formal essays. The publication was so popular that larger editions were issued in 1612 and 1625. Bacon was the first English writer to use the essay genre developed by Montaigne, but Bacon shaped the literary form to suit his own style. While Montaigne’s essays are personal, Bacon’s essays are logical, brief, and practical.

Eighteenth-century readers enjoyed periodical essays in publications such as the Tatler and the Spectator, which were England’s first major literary magazines. These journals included formal essays, but it was the satiric humor of the periodical essays that proved especially popular with the masses.

Colonial Americans read persuasive essays such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which helped spark the American Revolution.

Romantic writers of the nineteenth century found the essay genre appealing because they expressed personal feelings. Prominent essayists of this time included William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb. Known and respected for offering a subjective opinion in his essays, Hazlitt wrote about economics, politics, painting, the theater, and literature.

During the 1820s, Hazlitt’s close friend Charles Lamb wrote familiar essays, which he submitted to the newly created London Magazine. Master of the familiar essay, Lamb entertained his readers and established himself as a great nineteenth-century essayist.

American Ralph Waldo Emerson’s formal essay Nature, written in 1836, presents the principle ideas of transcendentalism. Within the next ten years, Emerson published two collections of essays, including the well-known Self-Reliance, an essay instructing readers to trust their own judgment above that of all others.

Noted novelists and short story writers such as Ralph Ellison, George Orwell, James Thurber, Aldous Huxley, and E. B. White all contributed essays during the twentieth century.

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