I find that I am rather partial to a book of essays. I think they have several advantages. They can be quite random in subject matter which is fun and if one essay doesn’t resonate with you then maybe the next one will. They also of course tend to be quite short which can be useful for late night reading.
Essayists, past and present, tend to be quite opinionated and to have quite definite views which they wish to share. Traditionally they have been seen as non conformists, not in a religious sense but suggesting that they do not accept the general consensus. Suddenly we are not too faraway from satirists. Thus someone like Voltaire might be writing under both titles and be happy to do so. Sorry, I’m beginning to sound like an English Lit. lecturer and indeed this takes me back to my studies in the 1970s.
My first experience of essays was at college, when we studied Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia. I remember having to prepare a critical analysis of an essay called: ‘A dissertation upon roast pig’ for a seminar. I found the text really funny but was not quite sure if this was the correct response, so the session was a little tense. Fortunately the lecturer agreed with me.
Later came the Metropolitan Writings of the early 19th century essayist William Hazlitt. He pontificates on ‘The want of money’ and ‘The feeling of immortality in youth.’ All the length of a good cup of coffee and a piece of your favourite cake.
Many years further on, following a rather random comment in the Radio Times, I discovered Michel de Montaigne, sometimes considered to be the first essayist, and a French philosopher dating from the late 1500s. What I love about him is how modern he often sounds and how many of his sound bites, his quotes, resonate with us centuries on. For instance: ‘A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.’ Well, we know what he means!
‘The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.’ Or, how about this firmly derogatory comment on celebrity: ‘even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.’ And dear Michel was centuries before the Kardashians.
Everyone is familiar with George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm but he also wrote a fascinating collection of essays called Shooting an Elephant. A few days ago with this article in my mind, I was pushing my small grandson around Canonbury Square in Islington while he had his late morning nap. I then noticed a blue plaque showing the house where Orwell lived in the 1940s. Later, when I looked it up, I found that Canonbury Square had a very literary and artistic past: Evelyn Waugh, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell amongst others had lived there. Anyway, this sent me back to Orwell’s essays and I found them rich and satisfying once more. I particularly enjoyed ‘Why I write’ and ‘Bookshop Memories.’
Believe it or not, this rather academic ramble is the introduction to the book I want to recommend to you! It is brand new and I actually went into Waterstones to buy it; a joy in itself. The title is ‘In the garden, essays on nature and growing.’ The title explains the subject matter but the writings are by a collection of different writers, including novelists and poets, gardeners, cooks and critics. Penelope Lively (one of my favourite contemporary writers) opens the book with a rather Proustian account of her own gardens throughout her long life. Other writers take a totally different slant on the topic, different but equally interesting. In the section on collective gardens I found a fascinating piece of writing on the gardens in London squares, and, lo and behold there was George Orwell again. (I love connections.)
After the Second World War he was complaining vigorously about the replacement of the iron railings that had previously enclosed these patches of green, so that ‘the lawful denizens of the squares can make use of their treasured keys again, and the children of the poor kept out.’ Interesting to note that today all the squares in Islington are open to the public but there are very many in London that are firmly locked, particularly in the Kensington and Chelsea area.
So, there is my very short essay on essays. I hope it has given you some food for thought. This is an appealing book published by Daunt Books with striking art work. We are all aware of how important gardens, nature and wildlife have become to people during this last difficult year and this book develops the subject.
Very readable, very accessible, very positive. I’m sure you would enjoy it.