Essays of the Masters

by Charles Neider (Editor)

This unorthodox but delightful anthology of 42 essays focuses on the masters of world literature―writers best known for novels, plays, and poems―and how they put the essay to their personal use. Contributors include Auden, Balzac, Conrad, Dickens, Dostoevski, Eliot, Faulkner, Flaubert, Gide, Goethe, Hardy, Hawthorne, Heine, Hemingway, Kafka, Kipling, Lawrence, Melville, Pirandello, Poe, Proust, Sartre, Tolstoy, Twain, Whitman, Wilde, Woolf, and Yeats.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Anthologies

474 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Charles Neider was an American writer, known for editing the Autobiography of Mark Twain and authoring literary impressions of Antarctica.

Reviews

[Loren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when I was 15. I don't recommend reading it all at once, because the stories/excerpts are very different from one another. There are some great authors in there. One of my favorites is "On Art" by Leo Tolstoi. Another is "Magic" by Yeats. And still another is "My Belief" by W. H. Auden

[Ryan Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tremendous, if a bit narrow collection of essays. There's absolutely no throughline between the essays or topics beyond the fact that they're overwhelmingly male (one woman represented) and exclusively white. Everything from marriage to talent to Hamlet and New York City. At best when it's wide-ranging-- though maybe a bit too many travelogues.

Some favorites that I highly recommend tracking down:

* My belief - WH Auden
* On Receiving the Noble Prize - Faulkner
* The Evolution of Theater - Andre Gide
* The Philosophy of Furniture - Edgar Allen Poe
* Hamlet and Don Quixote - Ivan Turgenev
* The Old Pacific Capital - Robert Louis Stevenson
* Chrysanthemums - Maurice Matterlink

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love essays. The book really made me want to read more of some folks and ignore others. Goethe is one who deserves more attention than I've given.

[— · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of essays. Chrysanthemums by Maurice Maeterlinck is a favorite of mine.

[Nitecrawler Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you like to read essays.