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/lit/ - Literature

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12609752 No.12609752 [Reply] [Original]

Which essay collections should I get by each of them? What are the essential essay collections other than them and Montaigne?

>> No.12609758
File: 21 KB, 197x300, Orwell - Essays.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12609758

>>12609752
I liked this one.
Did I miss any good ones?

>> No.12609770

Skip Orwell. Get Johnson, Addison, Emerson, de Quincey

>> No.12609789
File: 29 KB, 329x499, Woolf - Selected Essays.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12609789

>>12609770
Skip this guy, get a decent Woolf collection

>> No.12609829

>>12609752
Table-Talk is Hazlitt's best collection, but it's very difficult to get a copy because it hasn't been reprinted or edited recently. So just get either a Penguin or an Oxford anthology.

>> No.12609862

Chesterton's "Heretics" is a great collection.

>> No.12609875

>>12609789
Shame she never reached her father’s level as an essayist

>> No.12609895

Schopenhauer's Paregra and Paralipomena isn't too bad. Coleridge's Biographia Literaria shouldn't be ignored either.

>> No.12609970
File: 20 KB, 293x390, infant_Orwell-534.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12609970

>>12609770
>Skip Orwell
I started to type something mean in response to this but instead I decided to just ask you why you think this

>> No.12609975

>>12609970
His prose and ideas are unremarkable, he was belonged to that generation of English mediocrity which marks the end of the British literary tradition. There isn't a single striking sentence in his works, or an original idea.

>> No.12610008

>>12609752
>>12609770
>>12609789
>>12609970
>>12609975

I recently started reading some essays by Orwell.

honestly thought they were great. maybe nothing striking or original, but he writes with an accessibility and presents his ideas so lucidly they almost break the 4th wall and he speaks to you directly. this in itself is a literary skill few writers will ever have.

as for the death of the British literary tradition. say so if you will. if Orwell was alive today he'd be making documentaries, not writing. the times are simply changing. British artists are still pioneering. Orwell was just an artist of his day.

>> No.12610009

>>12609975
>he was belonged
Seems I will simply have to take your word on English prose style, Master...

>> No.12610020

>>12609975
Every time someone mentions Shakespeare, you're the guy who pipes up with "He didn't even come up with his own plots"

>> No.12610049
File: 404 KB, 1500x2400, del.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12610049

I'm not recommending this to OP, but while we're talking about essays has anyone read pic related? I'm halfway through and I'm really enjoying it. I think he talks a lot of bollocks but it's nice to find a writer who's so overtly conservative in his views, but also completely apolitical. I started reading Gide because of him and I'm having the time of my life with Gide's novels.

>> No.12610072

>>12610009
This isn't reddit, no one takes pointing out typos seriously.
>>12610020
>Every time someone mentions Shakespeare, you're the guy who pipes up with "He didn't even come up with his own plots"
And you're the guy defending high school lit

>> No.12610157

>>12609975
>poorly written and vague contrarianism
Behold, I give you /lit/

>> No.12610342

>>12610157
>his prose is bad
>but what do you really mean?
lol retard

>> No.12610353

>>12609752
George Orwell seems like the kindest person ever.

>> No.12610457

>>12609829
Actually via ABE one can get an old Everyman Library edition of this for pretty cheap. If desired, I'll post my copy.
The best essayist mentioned so far is Addison- rarely have I been as surprised as when reading through The Spectator- it's so fucking good.
Of Coleridge get The Friend; of Johnson The Rambler.

>> No.12610466

>>12609895
>Biographia Literaria
SHOULD be a central book here

>> No.12611746

>>12609970
>>12609975
>>12610008

I'm reading an Orwell essay collection right now. currently taking a break from it to check /lit/. I think it's great. If you've read any Dickens, you'll be all right (one of the essays is on Dickens, and about 60 ages long.

I'm enjoying it. It's called Shooting an Elephant.

>> No.12611766

>>12610342
"His prose is bad" is the stupidest, limpest, most non-committal non-argument that ever was drooled out on this board.

Explain how is prose is bad, with examples.

>> No.12611790

>>12609975
you.

are an idiot.

>> No.12611796

In 2019 you have no reason to buy any book.
Either go to a library or download the book online.

>> No.12611804

Johnson is the pick of those three. There are a few selections available, as long as you get the Preface to Shakespeare and generous selections from the Spectator and Idler you'll be rosy

>> No.12611830

>>12611796
Thanks for the comment champ.

>> No.12611865

>>12610457

Yeah, Addison was one of the few people that Pope lauded in Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

>> No.12611933

>>12611766
>Explain how is prose is bad, with examples.
No.

>> No.12612651

>>12611865
Which was odd given their political differences. There was however a mutual respect.

>> No.12614217
File: 11 KB, 181x278, download (5).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12614217

>>12609752
This was uncomnonly good.

>> No.12614387

>>12611933
You haven't read him, have you anon?