The English Familiar Essay Representative Texts

Author : William Frank Bryan
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330393437
Total Pages : 535 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (934 download)

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Download or read book The English Familiar Essay Representative Texts written by William Frank Bryan and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The English Familiar Essay Representative Texts: Edited With Introduction and Notes Probably no one will undertake to controvert the statement that a definition of the essay has not yet been made both inclusive enough to cover all the different kinds of prose to which the name has been given and still sufficiently restrictive to mark out any particular qualities which distinguish the essay from any other comparatively brief composition. An attempt to discover the characteristics common to Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding," Lamb's "Dissertation on Roast Pig," Macaulay's "Warren Hastings," Carlyle's "Essay on Bums," and Arnold's "Sweetness and Light" would pretty surely (Remonstrate that these various pieces of literature do not belong to any single, unified genre. There are, however, a large number of writings commonly called "essays" which have traditionally been felt to constitute a distinct type. These are characterized by a personal, confidential attitude of the writers toward their subjects and their readers, by an informal, familiar style, and by a concern with everyday manners and morals or with individual emotions and experiences rather than with public affairs or the material of systematic thinking. It is with the essay of this more narrowly limited type - perhaps best called the familiar Essay - that the present volume is exclusively concerned. In treating the Familiar Essay the editors have designed not to furnish models for a course in English composition or to compile an anthology, but to present such a selection of texts as will exhibit clearly the development of the genre in England. The complete accomplishment of this purpose has made it necessary, of course, to begin outside of England with Montaigne, the originator of the type, and to include specimens of his essays. A similar consideration has led to the inclusion of a brief extract from La Bruyere. But with these exceptions only British writers are represented. However delightful or stimulating are the essays of Irving and Emerson and Lowell, they have not affected the development of the type; and regard for unity of purpose, combined with lack of space, compels their exclusion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.