Publisher description
The essay is one of the richest, most imaginative, and most eloquent
literary form. This anthology contains some 140 essays by all the leading
exponents of the genre. 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 favourites, 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. The essay is one of the richest literary forms, with its characteristics of
freedom, informality and the personal touch. These qualities, and others, are
displayed in this collection of 140 essays by 120 writers, covering topics from
anger, Gandhi and party-going to wasps and Beethoven.
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The Oxford Book of Essays
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