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The British Essay: Origin, Trends, Practitioners, Leading Essays & Collections (16th-19th Century)

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Essay as a Literary Form

The Sixteenth Century: Origin and Francis Bacon

The Seventeenth Century: Character Writers, Cowley, Dryden, and Temple

The Eighteenth Century: The Rise of the Periodical Essay

The Nineteenth Century: Romantic and Victorian Essayists

Detailed Chart of Leading Practitioners and Their Contributions

Leading Essays and Collections: A Comprehensive Chart

Trends Across the Centuries - A Synoptic Timeline

UGC NET Previous Year Questions (2004-2024) on the British Essay

Tips and Final Words

1. Introduction: The Essay as a Literary Form

The word "essay" derives from the French essai, meaning "attempt" or "trial," and was popularised by the French writer Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), who published his Essais in 1580. Montaigne's essays were personal, digressive, sceptical and conversational, establishing the familiar essay tradition that values intimate self-revelation and informal style. In England, the form was first naturalised by Francis Bacon, whose Essays appeared in 1597. Unlike Montaigne's expansive self-portraits, Bacon's essays were concise, aphoristic, and dense with worldly wisdom. Thus, from the very beginning, the English essay branched into two major traditions:

The impersonal / aphoristic essay (Baconian) - objective, analytical, didactic.

The personal / familiar essay (Montaignesque) - subjective, intimate, rambling.

The UGC NET syllabus expects a thorough grasp of the historical trajectory of the English essay, major essayists, their seminal collections, distinctive styles, and the cultural and intellectual currents that shaped the genre from the 16th through the 19th century. This guide unpacks each phase with detailed charts and authentic previous-year question patterns.

2. The Sixteenth Century: Origin and Francis Bacon

2.1 The Beginning

Before Bacon, the prose tradition in England consisted of religious tracts, chronicles, travelogues, and romances. Bacon was the first to adopt the term "essay" deliberately, modelling his work on Montaigne's but giving it a wholly new character. His Essays evolved through three editions:

2.2 Bacon's Style and Philosophy

Bacon called his essays "dispersed meditations" and later "counsels civil and moral." His style is marked by:

Aphoristic compression: Many sentences have become proverbial, e.g., "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." (Of Studies)

Practical wisdom: Bacon deals with realpolitik, ambition, marriage, death, revenge, and truth.

Parallelism and antithesis: He uses balanced structures for rhetorical force.

Impersonal tone: The first-person pronoun is largely absent; the focus is on universal truths.

Classical allusions: Frequent references to Seneca, Tacitus, Plutarch, and the Bible.

2.3 Contributions of Bacon

Established the essay as a distinct genre in English literature.

Showed that English prose could be philosophical yet accessible.

Introduced the scientific temper into non-fiction prose - the essays reflect Bacon's empirical, inductive method.

Influenced subsequent moralists and prose stylists up to Addison and Johnson.

Key essays to remember: Of Truth, Of Death, Of Revenge, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Studies, Of Ambition, Of Friendship.

3. The Seventeenth Century: Character Writers, Cowley, Dryden, and Temple

3.1 The "Character" Essay

A fascinating offshoot in the early 17th century was the character sketch, inspired by the Greek writer Theophrastus. These were brief, witty portraits of social types. Key practitioners:

Joseph Hall - Characters of Virtues and Vices (1608)

Sir Thomas Overbury - Characters (1614), with sketches like "A Fair and Happy Milkmaid."

John Earle - Microcosmography (1628), delicate, ironic portraits of the world.

Thomas Fuller - The Holy State and the Profane State (1642), combining character writing with moral reflection.

Contribution: These writers developed a taste for concise, epigrammatic prose and sharp social observation that influenced the later periodical essayists.

3.2 Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

Cowley's Essays in Verse and Prose (published posthumously in 1668) reintroduced the personal, familiar essay in England, consciously following Montaigne. His essays like "Of Myself," "Of Solitude," "Of Agriculture" are graceful, self-revealing, and meditative. Cowley used a flexible, middle style, half-way between the ornate and the plain.

Contribution: Cowley bridged the gap between Bacon's impersonality and the intimate, conversational manner that would bloom in the 18th and 19th centuries.

3.3 John Dryden (1631-1700)

Though primarily a poet and dramatist, Dryden's prefaces, dedications, and critical works are critical essays of the highest order. Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) is a landmark: a dialogue that discusses ancient vs. modern drama, the unities, and the relative merits of French and English theatre. Dryden's prose is the first modern English prose - clear, idiomatic, urbane.

Contribution:

Father of English criticism; established the critical essay.

Developed a prose style that combined ease with dignity, influencing Addison, Steele, and Johnson.

3.4 Sir William Temple (1628-1699)

Temple's essays (Upon the Gardens of Epicurus, Of Ancient and Modern Learning) are graceful, reflective pieces. His controversy with Bentley over the Letters of Phalaris sparked the "Battle of the Books." Temple's informal elegance looked forward to the Augustan essay.

Overall 17th-Century Trends:

Emergence of character writing (Theophrastan model).

Revival of the personal essay (Cowley).

Rise of critical and reflective prose (Dryden, Temple).

Gradual refinement of prose toward the Augustan ideal of clarity and order.

4. The Eighteenth Century: The Rise of the Periodical Essay

4.1 Historical Context

The 18th century is the golden age of the periodical essay. Coffee-house culture, the rise of the middle class, expanding literacy, and the popularity of newspapers created a fertile ground. The periodical essay became an instrument of social reform, moral instruction, and entertainment.

4.2 Richard Steele and Joseph Addison

Key Essays from The Spectator:

The Uses of the Spectator (No. 10) - Addison's statement of purpose.

Sir Roger de Coverley Papers - A series creating the lovable, eccentric Tory squire (by Addison and Steele).

The Vision of Mirza (No. 159) - allegorical essay by Addison.

Westminster Abbey (No. 26) - meditations on death.

The Royal Exchange (No. 69) - celebrates commerce and global trade.

Contributions of Addison and Steele:

Established the middle style - clear, polite, accessible to a wide audience.

Created the fictional spectator persona that unifies a whole series.

Developed the character sketch into the fully realised fictional character (Sir Roger).

Used the essay as a tool of social criticism and moral improvement.

Johnson praised Addison: "Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."

4.3 Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Johnson wrote two series of periodical essays:

Johnson's style:

Periodic sentences, balanced and rhetorically elaborate.

Moral earnestness: Johnson attacks procrastination, indolence, envy, and social vices.

Abstract vocabulary: Latinate diction, general truths.

His essays are sermons in secular dress - profound, sombre, universal.

Famous Essays: The Rambler No. 4 (on fiction), No. 60 (on biography), No. 134 (on procrastination). The Idler No. 22 (The Vulture and the Mother), No. 31 (on idleness), No. 60 (Dick Minim, the critic).

Contribution: Raised the essay to a vehicle of moral philosophy and literary criticism; influenced the formal or solemn style in the essay tradition.

4.4 Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

Goldsmith's essays in The Bee (1759), The Public Ledger, and collected as The Citizen of the World (1762) charm with their gentle irony, humour, and humanity. The Citizen of the World is a series of letters from a Chinese philosopher, Lien Chi Altangi, observing English manners. Notable essays: "The Man in Black" (a benevolent misanthrope), "Beau Tibbs" (a shabby-genteel socialite), "A City Night-Piece" (on the homeless).

Contribution: Goldsmith blended Addison's social comedy with sentimental warmth, creating the sentimental-picaresque essay. He demonstrated how the foreign observer device could sharpen social satire.

4.5 Other Notable 18th-Century Essayists

Henry Fielding - The Covent-Garden Journal (1752), full of robust, satirical commentary.

Lord Chesterfield - Letters to His Son (1774), worldly advice, wit, and polished style.

Edmund Burke - Political and philosophical essays (A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful).

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - Turkish Embassy Letters (published posthumously), brilliant, witty, personal travel essays.

18th-Century Trends Summation:

Dominance of the periodical essay.

Social, moral, and aesthetic criticism.

Audience-driven prose: lucid, polite, conversational.

Rise of the middle-class sensibility.

A clear continuum from Addison's lightness to Johnson's gravity.

5. The Nineteenth Century: Romantic and Victorian Essayists

The 19th century witnesses two major phases: the Romantic essay, intensely personal, imaginative, and lyrical; and the Victorian essay, which becomes critical, didactic, and increasingly concerned with cultural, social, and aesthetic questions.

5.1 The Romantic Personal Essay

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

Lamb, under the pseudonym Elia, published his essays in The London Magazine (1820-1825), collected in Essays of Elia (1823) and Last Essays of Elia (1833).

Style and Features:

Archaic, mannered yet intimate; "a self-pleasing quaintness."

Humour and pathos interwoven - the "Lambian blend."

Autobiographical subject matter: his family, his clerk's life, his childhood.

Nostalgia for the past and a peculiar sense of urbanity.

Key Essays: Dream Children: A Reverie, The Superannuated Man, A Dissertation upon Roast Pig, Poor Relations, The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers, Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago, Old China.

Contribution: Lamb brought the essay closest to lyric poetry; he perfected the familiar essay as a work of art, where the personality of the writer is the true subject.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

Hazlitt's essays appear in The Round Table (1817), Table-Talk (1821-22), The Spirit of the Age (1825), The Plain Speaker (1826), and Sketches and Essays (1829).

Style and Features:

"Familiar style" - plain, forceful, sinewy; he argued passionately for the plain style.

Gusto - the key Hazlittian term, meaning energetic relish of a subject.

Covers art, literature, politics, philosophy, sports, travel.

Combines keen critical intelligence with strong personal conviction.

Key Essays: My First Acquaintance with Poets, The Indian Jugglers, On Going a Journey, The Fight, On Familiar Style, On Reading Old Books.

Contribution: Hazlitt democratised criticism in essay form; he made the periodical essay the vehicle for profound literary and political commentary without sacrificing the personal voice.

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859)

Editor of The Examiner and The Indicator; essays collected in The Indicator (1820), The Seer (1840). Hunt's style is cheerful, discursive, full of fanciful appreciation of nature and domestic life. Key essays: Getting Up on Cold Mornings, A Few Thoughts on Sleep, Coaches.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)

De Quincey's essays are collected in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (1827), Suspiria de Profundis (1845), and critical essays like On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth (1823).

Style and Features:

Impassioned prose - De Quincey distinguished between "the literature of knowledge" and "the literature of power."

Rhapsodic, musical, cadenced, full of elaborate figures and digressions.

Autobiographical, confessional, exploring the psyche and dreams.

Key Essays: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, The English Mail-Coach, On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth, Suspiria de Profundis, Joan of Arc.

Contribution: De Quincey expanded the essay into the realm of the subconscious and the sublime; he created the prose-poetry essay, influencing later symbolist and modernist prose writers.

5.2 The Victorian Essay

The Victorian age saw the essay become the primary medium of intellectual, moral, and aesthetic criticism. Major figures:

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)

Macaulay's essays for the Edinburgh Review were collected as Critical and Historical Essays (1843). His style is vigorous, lucid, antithetical, and oratorical. Key essays: Milton (1825), Machiavelli, Clive, Warren Hastings, Addison. Macaulay's confident, Whig interpretation of history and literature makes his essays compelling but partisan.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Carlyle's voluminous writings often blur the line between treatise and essay. His Sartor Resartus (1833-34) is a fictional philosophical essay. Later, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841), Past and Present (1843), and Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850) continue his prophetic, vehement style, full of Germanic inversions, coinages, and exclamation - the "Carlylese." Key essayistic work: On History (1830), Characteristics (1831), Signs of the Times (1829).

Contribution: Carlyle brought the essay into a new territory of prophetic social criticism and symbolic thinking, influencing Ruskin, Arnold, and the social novel.

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Ruskin's essays on art and society include Modern Painters (vols. I-V, 1843-60), The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), The Stones of Venice (1851-53), Unto This Last (1860, four essays on political economy), Sesame and Lilies (1865, two lectures-turned-essays), The Crown of Wild Olive (1866). His style ranges from brilliant descriptive word-painting to impassioned prophetic denunciation of industrial capitalism.

Key essays: The Nature of Gothic (from The Stones of Venice), Of Queens' Gardens and Of Kings' Treasuries (Sesame and Lilies). Contribution: Ruskin fused aesthetic criticism with social ethics, paving the way for the Arts and Crafts movement and the later welfare state.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Arnold's essays, collected in Essays in Criticism (First Series, 1865; Second Series, 1888), Culture and Anarchy (1869), Literature and Dogma (1873), and On Translating Homer (1861), define the critical function in the modern world. Arnold's prose is elegant, ironical, full of memorable catchwords: "sweetness and light," "touchstone method," "the grand style," "Philistines," "Barbarians."

Key essays: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time, The Study of Poetry, Wordsworth, Byron, Heinrich Heine, Culture and Anarchy (Chapter 1: "Sweetness and Light"). Contribution: Arnold established criticism as a high cultural calling, and his essays shaped the English literary canon for a century.

Walter Pater (1839-1894)

Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873, later The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry), Marius the Epicurean (1885), and Appreciations (1889) represent the aesthetic school. His style is exquisite, languorous, heavily cadenced ("jewelled prose"). The "Conclusion" to The Renaissance is a manifesto of aesthetic hedonism: "To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life."

Contribution: Pater transformed the critical essay into a poetic meditation on beauty, sensation, and the fleeting moment; he profoundly influenced Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Stevenson revived the familiar essay in collections like Virginibus Puerisque (1881), Familiar Studies of Men and Books (1882), and Memories and Portraits (1887). His style is meticulously crafted, graceful, and personal. Key essays: On Falling in Love, An Apology for Idlers, Aes Triplex, El Dorado.

Contribution: Stevenson proved that the Lamb-Hazlitt tradition of the personal essay could still thrive in the late Victorian era, influencing the 20th-century familiar essay (Chesterton, Belloc).

Other Victorian Essayists

John Henry Newman - The Idea of a University (1852, 1858), a series of discourses/essays on liberal education, celebrated for its lucid, flexible, ironic prose.

Thomas Henry Huxley - Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, Agnosticism, the essay On a Piece of Chalk.

Leslie Stephen - Hours in a Library, biographical-critical essays.

Augustine Birrell - Obiter Dicta, charming familiar essays.

Alice Meynell - The Rhythm of Life, exquisite short essays.

6. Detailed Chart of Leading Practitioners and Their Contributions

7. Leading Essays and Collections: A Comprehensive Chart

8. Trends Across the Centuries - A Synoptic Timeline

9. UGC NET Previous Year Questions (2004-2024) on the British Essay

The following questions have been compiled from memory, expert analysis, and examination archives. They reflect the pattern, style, and depth of actual UGC NET English Paper. Answers are provided at the end.

9.1 Match the Following

Q1. Match the essay collections with their authors (A) Microcosmography (B) The Citizen of the World (C) The Spirit of the Age (D) Sesame and Lilies

(1) Oliver Goldsmith (2) William Hazlitt (3) John Earle (4) John Ruskin

Q 2. Match the essayists with the periodicals they are chiefly associated with (A) Richard Steele (B) Samuel Johnson (C) Joseph Addison (D) Oliver Goldsmith

(1) The Rambler (2) The Tatler (3) The Public Ledger / The Bee (4) The Spectator

Q 3. Match the essayists with their characteristic style/term (A) Francis Bacon (B) Charles Lamb (C) Walter Pater (D) William Hazlitt

(1) Gusto (2) Aphoristic (3) Quaintness & pathos (4) Jewelled prose

9.2 Chronological Sequencing

Q4. Arrange the following essay collections chronologically: (1) Essays of Elia (2) The Rambler (3) Studies in the Renaissance (4) Essays (Bacon's final edition)

Q5. Arrange these periodicals in order of their first publication: (1) The Tatler (2) The Idler (3) The Spectator (4) The Rambler

9.3 Identification / Fact-based

Q6. Who called his essays "dispersed meditations"? (a) Abraham Cowley (b) Francis Bacon (c) Charles Lamb (d) William Hazlitt

Q7. The character Sir Roger de Coverley appears in: (a) The Tatler (b) The Spectator (c) The Guardian (d) The Rambler

Q8. "To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame" is a phrase from: (a) Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (b) Pater's Studies in the Renaissance (c) Ruskin's Unto This Last (d) Arnold's Culture and Anarchy

Q9. The "Conclusion" to The Renaissance was suppressed in the second edition because it was considered: (a) politically seditious (b) an incitement to hedonism (c) too technical (d) plagiarised

Q10. Who introduced the term "familiar style" and wrote the essay "On Familiar Style"? (a) Charles Lamb (b) Matthew Arnold (c) William Hazlitt (d) Robert Louis Stevenson

Q11. The Citizen of the World assumes the persona of: (a) a Turkish merchant (b) a Chinese philosopher (c) an Indian traveller (d) an American loyalist

Q12. Samuel Johnson's The Idler appeared in: (a) The Gentleman's Magazine (b) The Universal Chronicle (c) The Edinburgh Review (d) The London Magazine

Q13. Which essayist distinguished between "literature of knowledge" and "literature of power"? (a) Coleridge (b) De Quincey (c) Hazlitt (d) Lamb

Q14. The essay Dream Children: A Reverie is notable for its: (a) satire on education (b) political allegory (c) blend of dream and waking, humour and pathos (d) defence of the Romantic imagination

Q15. Sartor Resartus means: (a) The Hero Redeemed (b) The Tailor Re-tailored (c) The Stone Rejected (d) The Past Redressed

9.4 Assertion and Reason

Q16. Assertion (A): Bacon's essays are called "counsels civil and moral." Reason (R): They deal primarily with religious dogma and scriptural exegesis.

(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation. (b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation. (c) (A) is true but (R) is false. (d) (A) is false but (R) is true.

Q17. Assertion (A): Addison's aim in The Spectator was to "enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." Reason (R): The essays were designed for the entertainment and instruction of the newly literate middle classes.

(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation. (b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation. (c) (A) is true but (R) is false. (d) (A) is false but (R) is true.

Q18. Assertion (A): Lamb's Essays of Elia are intensely autobiographical. Reason (R): The Elia persona allows Lamb to transform and idealise his own experiences.

(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation. (b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation. (c) (A) is true but (R) is false. (d) (A) is false but (R) is true.

Q19. Assertion (A): Arnold's "touchstone method" was first proposed in The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. Reason (R): Arnold introduces it in The Study of Poetry as a way to judge poetic excellence.

(a) (A) is true but (R) is false. (b) (A) is false but (R) is true. (c) Both (A) and (R) are true. (d) Both (A) and (R) are false.

9.5 Multiple Correct / All Except

Q20. Which of the following are periodical essays founded/co-founded by Richard Steele? (a) The Rambler (b) The Tatler (c) The Spectator (d) The Guardian

Options: (i) (b) and (c) only; (ii) (b), (c), and (d); (iii) (a), (b), (c); (iv) all four

Q21. Which of the following essays were written by Charles Lamb? (a) The Superannuated Man (b) The Indian Jugglers (c) Dream Children: A Reverie (d) A Dissertation upon Roast Pig

Options: (i) (a) and (c); (ii) (a), (c) and (d); (iii) (b) and (d); (iv) all four

Q22. The character Sir Roger de Coverley was created by: (a) Addison alone (b) Steele alone (c) Addison and Steele jointly (d) Johnson in a tribute to Addison

Answer Key

Q1. (A)-3, (B)-1, (C)-2, (D)-4 Q2. (A)-2, (B)-1, (C)-4, (D)-3 Q3. (A)-2, (B)-3, (C)-4, (D)-1

Q4. Correct order: (4) Bacon's Essays 1625 → (2) The Rambler 1750-52 → (1) Essays of Elia 1823 → (3) Studies in the Renaissance 1873.

Q5. (1) The Tatler 1709 → (3) The Spectator 1711 → (4) The Rambler 1750 → (2) The Idler 1758.

Q6. (b) Francis Bacon Q7. (b) The Spectator Q8. (b) Pater's Studies in the Renaissance Q9. (b) an incitement to hedonism Q10. (c) William Hazlitt Q11. (b) a Chinese philosopher Q12. (b) The Universal Chronicle Q13. (b) De Quincey Q14. (c) blend of dream and waking, humour and pathos Q15. (b) The Tailor Re-tailored

Q16. (c) (A) true; (R) false -- Bacon's essays are secular, not scriptural. Q17. (a) Both true and (R) explains (A). Q18. (a) Both true and (R) explains (A). Q19. (b) (A) false, (R) true -- "touchstone method" is introduced in The Study of Poetry, not The Function of Criticism. Q20. (ii) (b), (c), and (d) -- Steele co-founded Tatler, Spectator, Guardian. The Rambler is Johnson's sole venture. Q21. (ii) (a), (c) and (d) -- The Indian Jugglers is by Hazlitt. Q22. (c) Addison and Steele jointly

10. Tips and Final Words

Create a timeline in your own notebook mapping the essays, collections, and periodicals. Knowing what came when is essential for chronological questions.

Memorise opening lines and famous quotes. UGC NET often asks identification based on a quoted line (e.g., "reading maketh a full man...," "to burn always with a hard, gem-like flame," "sweetness and light").

Understand the personas: Isaac Bickerstaff (Steele), Mr. Spectator (Addison & Steele), Elia (Lamb), Lien Chi Altangi (Goldsmith).

Familiarise yourself with the two major strands: impersonal/critical (Bacon → Dryden → Johnson → Arnold → Pater) and personal/familiar (Cowley → Addison/Steele → Goldsmith → Lamb → Hazlitt → Stevenson).

Practice match-the-following and assertion-reason questions based on the charts above.

Read one or two representative essays from each major figure; it helps with prose style identifications.

Revise the character sketch tradition (Overbury, Earle) and the periodical essay's social agenda; these are frequently tested distinguishing features.

| Edition | Year | Number of Essays | Character | |---------|------|-----------------|-----------| | First | 1597 | 10 | Brief, aphoristic notes | | Second | 1612 | 38 | Expanded, more polished | | Third | 1625 | 58 | Final form; complete and fully developed |

| Author | Periodical | Dates | Features | |--------|------------|-------|----------| | Richard Steele | The Tatler | 1709-1711 | Established the periodical essay as a genre. Introduced the persona of "Isaac Bickerstaff." | | Joseph Addison & Steele | The Spectator | 1711-1712, 1714 (daily) | Most famous periodical. Persona: Mr. Spectator, a silent observer of London life. Aim: "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." | | Addison & Steele | The Guardian | 1713 | Continuation of the same spirit. |

| Periodical | Dates | Frequency | Note | |------------|-------|-----------|------| | The Rambler | 1750-1752 | Twice a week | Sole author; grave, moral, Latinate style. 208 essays. | | The Idler | 1758-1760 | Weekly (in Universal Chronicle) | Lighter, more relaxed than The Rambler. 103 essays. | | The Adventurer | 1753-1754 | | Contributed essays alongside John Hawkesworth. |

| Practitioner | Century | Notable Essay Collections / Works | Style & Dominant Feature | Major Contribution | |-------------|--------|-------------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------| | Francis Bacon | 16th-17th C. | Essays (1597, 1612, 1625) | Aphoristic, impersonal, antithetical | Father of English essay; secular, worldly wisdom| | | John Earle | 17th C. | Microcosmography (1628) | Character sketch, witty, ironic | Perfected the Theophrastan character| | | Abraham Cowley | 17th C. | Essays in Verse and Prose (1668) | Personal, meditative, middle style | Revived the intimate Montaignesque essay| | | John Dryden | 17th C. | Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), Prefaces | Clear, urbane, conversational | Founder of English critical essay; modern prose| | | Joseph Addison | 18th C. | The Spectator (1711-12, 1714) | Middle style, polished, witty | Created the periodical essay as literary art; Sir Roger de Coverley| | | Richard Steele | 18th C. | The Tatler (1709-11), Spectator, Guardian | Warm, impulsive, humane | Launched the periodical essay; Isaac Bickerstaff| | | Samuel Johnson | 18th C. | The Rambler (1750-52), The Idler (1758-60) | Latinate, periodic, moral gravity | Raised essay to moral philosophy; classic formal essay| | | Oliver Goldsmith | 18th C. | The Citizen of the World (1762), The Bee | Gentle irony, sentimental comedy | Chinese letters; blend of Addison and sentiment| | | Charles Lamb | 19th C. (Romantic) | Essays of Elia (1823), Last Essays (1833) | Quaint, nostalgic, pathos + humour | Perfected the familiar personal essay as lyrical art| | | William Hazlitt | 19th C. (Romantic) | Table-Talk, The Spirit of the Age, The Plain Speaker | Plain, forceful, "gusto" | Unified personal, political, and critical essay| | | Thomas De Quincey | 19th C. (Romantic) | Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Suspiria, Murder as Fine Art | Impassioned prose, rhapsodic, psychological | Invented prose-poetry essay; literature of power| | | Thomas Carlyle | 19th C. (Victorian) | Sartor Resartus, Past and Present, Heroes and Hero-Worship | Prophetic, Germanic, symbolist | Transformed essay into social prophecy; "Carlylese"| | | Thomas Babington Macaulay | 19th C. (Victorian) | Critical and Historical Essays (1843) | Antithetical, oratorical, lucid | Popularised critical essay; Whig perspective| | | John Ruskin | 19th C. (Victorian) | Unto This Last, Sesame and Lilies, The Stones of Venice | Descriptive brilliance, moral passion | Fused art criticism with social reform| | | Matthew Arnold | 19th C. (Victorian) | Essays in Criticism (1865, 1888), Culture and Anarchy (1869) | Ironic, elegant, cultural authoritative | Defined modern criticism; "sweetness and light," "touchstone"| | | Walter Pater | 19th C. (Victorian) | Studies in the Renaissance (1873), Appreciations | Jewelled, aesthetic, sensuous | Aesthetic criticism; art-for-art's-sake in essay form| | | R. L. Stevenson | 19th C. (Late Victorian) | Virginibus Puerisque (1881), Familiar Studies | Graceful, personal, nostalgic | Reinvigorated the familiar essay for a new generation |

| Essay / Collection | Author | Year(s) | Type / Significance | |------------------|--------|--------|-------------------| | Essays | Francis Bacon | 1597 (10), 1612 (38), 1625 (58) | First English essay collection; aphoristic, worldly | | Characters | Sir Thomas Overbury | 1614 | Theophrastan character sketches | | Microcosmography | John Earle | 1628 | Finest 17th-century character book | | Essay of Dramatic Poesy | John Dryden | 1668 | First major English critical essay; dialogue form | | Essays in Verse and Prose | Abraham Cowley | 1668 | Revival of the personal familiar essay | | The Tatler (271 numbers) | Richard Steele (mainly) | 1709-1711 | First successful periodical essay | | The Spectator (635 numbers) | Addison & Steele | 1711-1712, 1714 | Greatest periodical essay series; Mr. Spectator | | The Rambler (208 numbers) | Samuel Johnson | 1750-1752 | Grave moral essays, formal style | | The Idler (103 numbers) | Samuel Johnson | 1758-1760 | Lighter periodical essays | | The Citizen of the World | Oliver Goldsmith | 1762 | Chinese observer; satire of English society | | The Man in Black (in Citizen) | Goldsmith | 1762 | Portrait of a benevolent misanthrope | | Essays of Elia | Charles Lamb | 1823 | Landmark familiar essays; Elia persona | | Last Essays of Elia | Charles Lamb | 1833 | Sequel, including "Superannuated Man," "Old China" | | Table-Talk | William Hazlitt | 1821-22 | Platonic conversations turned into essays | | The Spirit of the Age | William Hazlitt | 1825 | Gallery of contemporary portraits | | Confessions of an English Opium-Eater | Thomas De Quincey | 1821 (expanded 1856) | Autobiographical, psychological essay | | On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts | De Quincey | 1827, 1839, 1854 | Satirical lecture-essay | | Suspiria de Profundis | De Quincey | 1845 | Prose-poetic dreams | | Sartor Resartus | Thomas Carlyle | 1833-34 | Fictional philosophical essay / anti-novel | | Heroes and Hero-Worship | Thomas Carlyle | 1841 | Series of six lectures-essays | | Past and Present | Thomas Carlyle | 1843 | Social criticism in essayistic chapters | | Critical and Historical Essays | T.B. Macaulay | 1843 | Collection from Edinburgh Review; includes Milton, Machiavelli | | Modern Painters (5 vols) | John Ruskin | 1843-1860 | Art criticism essays | | Unto This Last | John Ruskin | 1860 | Four essays on political economy | | Sesame and Lilies | John Ruskin | 1865 | Two lectures-essays on reading and women's education | | Essays in Criticism (First Series) | Matthew Arnold | 1865 | Includes Function of Criticism, Heine, Wordsworth | | Culture and Anarchy | Matthew Arnold | 1869 | Cultural criticism essays | | Essays in Criticism (Second Series) | Matthew Arnold | 1888 | Includes The Study of Poetry | | Studies in the History of the Renaissance | Walter Pater | 1873 | Aesthetic essays; Conclusion famous | | Appreciations | Walter Pater | 1889 | Collected literary essays, incl. Style | | Virginibus Puerisque | R. L. Stevenson | 1881 | Familiar essays for youth | | Familiar Studies of Men and Books | R. L. Stevenson | 1882 | Critical and personal essays | | The Idea of a University | J. H. Newman | 1852, 1858 | Discourses/essays on liberal education | | Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews | T. H. Huxley | 1870 | Essays on science and agnosticism | | Obiter Dicta | Augustine Birrell | 1884, 1887 | Charming late Victorian familiar essays |

| Century | Dominant Form | Key Features | Representative Authors | |---------|---------------|-------------|----------------------| | 16th | Aphoristic essay | Impersonal, brief, sententious, classical learning, worldly wisdom | Francis Bacon | | Early 17th | Character sketch | Theophrastan model, social types, witty prose | Hall, Overbury, Earle, Fuller | | Mid-Late 17th | Personal & critical essay | Revival of familiar style (Cowley); critical dialogue and prefaces (Dryden); transitional prose | Cowley, Dryden, Temple | | 18th | Periodical essay | Social reform, politeness, middle-class audience, coffee-house culture, serial publication, fictional persona | Addison, Steele, Johnson, Goldsmith | | Romantic (early 19th) | Personal/familiar essay & impassioned prose | Subjectivity, nostalgia, psychological depth, lyrical, confessional; prose-poetry | Lamb, Hazlitt, Hunt, De Quincey | | Victorian | Critical, social, and aesthetic essay | Moral earnestness, prophetic voice (Carlyle, Ruskin), cultural criticism (Arnold), aesthetic hedonism (Pater), familiar revival (Stevenson) | Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, Arnold, Pater, Newman, Stevenson |