50 World’s Greatest Essays: Collectable Edition

by Various

From self-expression and personal discoveries to revelations and diatribes, essays have been thought-provoking, educating, informing and even entertaining us for more than four hundred years. And the diversity of the subjects this art has covered is boundless loving, hating, self-reliance, prudence, witches, liars and even poetry and writing. The literary canon abounds with innumerable essays. Out of this, we bring to you fifty carefully chosen, remarkable and insightful masterpieces to rekindle your appreciation of this art form, such as The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf, Of Liars by Michel de Montaigne, Of Love by Francis Bacon, Silly Novels by Lady Novelists by George Eliot, Friendship by Joseph Addison and many more. An essay is a thing which someone does himself; and the point of the essay is not the subject, . . . but the charm of personality. Arthur Benson, The Art of the Essayist All writers are vain, selfish and lazy and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. George Orwell, Why I Write The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now knew death. As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth.

720 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2018

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Lexlingua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good essays, but these are not the modern essays. And some of them are pretty old; old enough to be excerpted in textbooks for required readings in school.

[Prashant Drolia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this at the Airport book shop. Was in a hurry as the last call of my flight were being announced. Confused, i bought this instead of The Overstory by Richard Powers. I Immediately regretted it. The essay's were old, but as i read a few of the essays, i started to enjoy them. Some good ones were - Visit to a book shop, On the pleasures of Hating, The life of a Moth, Serpent worship in the ancient world, Reflections on Gandhi, and On Laziness. I would have given it a higher rating had they included some contemporary essays. The latest of the Essays is written on 1950 by George Orwell. Most of them will be available on the internet as free reads or pdf's. But we don't know about these essays that the compiler has anthologized and therefore would not have read it, had it not been for this anthology. Therefore, considering all the positives and negatives, a three star rating seems fair.

[Rijo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most essays are old. But gives a peek into the kind of thinking that was prevalent in that era-- it is interesting that way. It more of a book you can pick up even if you only 30mins. Most essays are short and you can pick and choose which one to read. I read the ones that are late-1800 or later. I think this one is going to be out on my bedside for more than a month.

[Ramprasad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor selection of essays