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Selections from The Spectator
Originally published in 1909, this book contains a selection of essays by the English man of letters and politician Joseph Addison (1672 1719). The essays were selected from The Spectator, the magazine founded by Addison and Richard Steele, which ran from 1711 to 1712. An editorial introduction is included, along with notes. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the writings of Addison and The Spectator."
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1909
About the author
Joseph Addison
1,566 books93 followersEnglish essayist, poet, playwright, and politician.
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June 6, 2026
Pithy collection by the masters of the essay. These are the predecessors of the great blogs or newspaper columnists.
This is a well-curated selection. I think it's from an editor's work in 1906, so they already took out a lot of the stuff that was dated. What you'll see here are examples of the early eighteenth century work, with timeless subjects ("On Friendship", "Pedants", "On Ridicule") and some exemplary essays that show the contemporaneous format (maybe best exemplified in "The Scope of Satire" where the imagined co-authors of The Spectator debate the appropriate limits of satire). Various aspects of eighteenth century life are also discussed (e.g., style in "French Fopperies"). Altogether, I think I read about 60%-75% of this. I skipped a lot of the essays that looked dated or otherwise uninteresting.
The reason that I started this was I wanted to see more of Harold Bloom's canon that was nonfiction. I think this was on there? If not, an LLM led me astray. Anyway, I liked this more than Montaigne. If you want to check out some old essays, give this a shot.
This is a well-curated selection. I think it's from an editor's work in 1906, so they already took out a lot of the stuff that was dated. What you'll see here are examples of the early eighteenth century work, with timeless subjects ("On Friendship", "Pedants", "On Ridicule") and some exemplary essays that show the contemporaneous format (maybe best exemplified in "The Scope of Satire" where the imagined co-authors of The Spectator debate the appropriate limits of satire). Various aspects of eighteenth century life are also discussed (e.g., style in "French Fopperies"). Altogether, I think I read about 60%-75% of this. I skipped a lot of the essays that looked dated or otherwise uninteresting.
The reason that I started this was I wanted to see more of Harold Bloom's canon that was nonfiction. I think this was on there? If not, an LLM led me astray. Anyway, I liked this more than Montaigne. If you want to check out some old essays, give this a shot.
Displaying 1 of 1 review