The Oxford Book of Essays
The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch--though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. \ All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, recent examples that...
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The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch—though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, recent examples that deserve to be better known. A particularly welcome feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. This is an anthology that opens with wise words about the nature of truth, and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps, the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey. It contains some of the most eloquent writing in English, and some of the most entertaining.
AcknowledgementsIntroductionOf Truth1Of Revenge3Of Boldness4Of Innovations5Of Masques and Triumphs6A Chambermaid9A Fair and Happy Milkmaid10An Antiquary12A Good Old Man13A Pot-Poet14How the Distempers of these Times should affect wise Men15On Dreams17Of Anger21A Degenerate Noble23Of Charity, or the Love of God25Of Avarice27'Chaucer' (from Preface to the Fables)29Good Manners and Good Breeding34A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick39Thoughts in Westminster Abbey41The Royal Exchange43Sir Roger in Westminster Abbey46Sir Roger at Vauxhall50On Recollections of Childhood53Upon Affectation57The Levee61The Poor and their Betters63Dignity and Uses of Biography68Conversation72Debtors' Prisons (1)75Debtors' Prisons (2)77Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature81On Dress87A Little Great Man91On National Prejudices94On War98Dream Children104from On Some of the Old Actors107On the Pleasure of Hating112Brummelliana122Getting Up on Cold Mornings126The Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth131from Signs of the Times136from Lord Clive149On Secrecy164Secular Knowledge not a Principle of Action166The Conservative171The Haunted Mind187'Bentham and Coleridge' (from Coleridge)192City of London Churches196Autour de mon Chapeau207The Plumber217Night and Moonlight221The Philosophy of Christianity229Thomas Carlyle239Heine and the Philistines (from Heinrich Heine)242from Evolution and Ethics247Dull Government252Talking about our Troubles257from Autobiography259On Knowing what Gives us Pleasure263Thoughts of God266Sandro Botticelli270Wasps278Disintroductions282The Ph.D. Octopus285from London293Under the Early Stars303The Acorn-Gatherer305Aes Triplex309'The True Critic' (from The Critic as Artist)317Sir George Grove320The Censor of Plays326A Visit to Walt Whitman330William James336Intellectual Ambition341Intuitive Morality342Cordova346On the Departure of a Guest348On Being Modern-Minded351'A Clergyman'356The Dream362A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls372On Sandals and Simplicity377Invective381My Own Centenary383Creighton386The Libido for the Ugly392Funeral March396Evening Parties400Harriette Wilson404The Death of the Moth409Finnegans Wake412The Greatest Victorian414Insouciance420What There is to See at the Zoo424Marie Lloyd428Symmetry and Repetition431The Necessary Enemy434The Sterner Sex439The Colloid and the Crystal444On Being the Right Size452Meditation on the Moon458My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage462The Toy Farm468The Case for Xanthippe472A Preface to Persius480About Myself486Our Half-Hogarth489The Ant-Lion495Reflections on Gandhi501Well-Informed Circles ... and How to Move in Them510The Lost Childhood515Adams at Ease520A New Westminster528The Faces of Buddha532The Snout536What If -? English versus German and French544In Search of Nib-Joy548Young Hunger551Churchill and Roosevelt (from Winston Churchill in 1940)555To Err is Human560Bad Poets564Thomas Hobbes566The Apotheosis of Martin Luther King572The Gangster as Tragic Hero581The Homburg Hat587The People's Victor591Movies on Television595The Marquis and the Madame607The Savage Seventh611The Crisp at the Crossroads617Stranger in the Village621Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars634La Paz641A Visit from Royalty646Is It Alas, Yorick?651Columbus and Crusoe656The Bankrupt Man660At the Dam663About Face666A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses673
