The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present by Phillip LopateMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
As I have been working on some of my own personal essays from my travels in India, this has been like my Bible. I'm just going to attach some of my responses on the form and content of selected essays. It can be daunting to try and sift through the entire anthology (it is huge, I know, I backpacked it all over Europe and India) so I hope this can help someone:
1. Consolation to His Wife by Plutarch
Content:
It is kind of refreshing to find a guy who “atypically for his age, saw marriage as the closet of human bonds” (16). It is clear as we read this that he admires his “dear wife.” This is a letter written to her to give advice and encouragement to her as she mourns for their recently deceased little girl, who died while he was away (and somehow missed the message). It is interesting to see this kind of marriage dynamic and to get a glimpse at some of the cultural values of his society. This was written before 120 AD, and there are some practices that are definitely different from what we would be accustomed to. For one, mourning is not really appropriate, and actually against the law (22). The advice given to his wife was clear on that, and he commended her for handling it so well.
Yet, some things are similar, and some of the advice might be as applicable today as it was over a thousand years ago. I thought it was interesting that he realized that his daughter only knew of “little things, and in little things she took her please” (21). Since she had no way of knowing what she was deprived of, they should therefore not mourn the loss of potential. I don’t think I would necessarily love that advice if I had a kid pass away, but he has a point, and it seems applicable to now.
One of the other things notable about this letter was that, beautiful as it was, Plutarch seemed to betray no emotion. That would probably be a societal value as well.
Form:
The most notable thing about this form is that it is written as a letter to his wife. She is the audience, and he writes directly to her. Yet, the messages and the formal way he writes make it universal.
The form of the letter really does kind of wrap up the comments on form. It has an intended audience and flows organically wherever the topic comes to. He does not change voice, use flashback, or anything like that. There are a lot of rhetorical questions though, which is probably a notable device, and the letter is somewhat of an argument meant to persuade not just his wife, but others, the appropriate way to behave after a death.
2. Of Greatness by Abraham Cowley
Content:
This was an interesting little essay. It was interesting to see that while considered very person for this time period, it is nowhere near as vulnerable to the narrator as some of the other essays in this anthology. As the narrator goes through and tries to pin point the consequences of wanting greatness and honor, I enjoyed a few little excerpts. One was about contentment, and how “no greatness can be satisfied or contented with itself” (120). I also appreciated his final point, which was that “everything is little, and everything is great, according as it is diversely compared” (121). It is so true.
Form:
Cowley opens with a quote by Sieur de Montaigne and argues from there. It is a nice way to introduce the topic. This device, using quotes from other writers, Homer, etc. was used throughout the entire essay as a way to look more credible and backed up by “the great ones.” Even St. Paul was quoted, giving it even a religious spin. Little bits of poems were also included, as well as a bunch of Latin and Greek phrases, trying to establish his ethos. He adds to that on the first page when he puts in his own love of “littleness” (116) and argues why that is the better way to be.
The language in this essay is very formal with liberal use of adverbs. It is meant to be persuasive and to make the author look like he knows a thing or two about this subject, which I think is the main reason why (if it was every appropriate in the day), he did not use informal speech patterns.
The organization is pretty straight forward. He has an argument to make, and he goes through point by point to explain the intricacies of his thought.
3. Love-Letters by Addison &Steele
Content:
This was hilarious! It is essentially a commentary on two different love letters to Romana to prove a point about the complexity of what women want in a guy. Tale as old as time! We tend to want the guy who is fun, dangerous, and frankly not the best choice, though, as this lady says, “she knew she out to have taken Constant; but believed, she should have chosen Carless” (135).
Form:
This is a really interesting form—we get a very “show but not tell” thing going on, which does not seem to be very common for the time period it was written. It begins and ends with an overarching commentary but includes two letters from outside voices. The two letters are almost exactly the same as far as style and length, but the first (Careless) is vain and silly, while the second (Constant) is formal and boring. Yet, the last paragraph that sums up the point does not come out with a didactic moral of the story kind of line. Instead, the last line is left to Romana, who sums it up for us.
This was also very impersonal. We got minimal details about the actual narrator.
4. On Marriage by Robert Louis Stevenson
Content:
It was not necessarily easy to figure out right away what Stevenson was talking about. He first comes out saying that while “there is something in marriage so natural and inviting” that “there is probably no other act in a man’s life so hot-headed and foolhardy” (230). He explains that people who want to get married to fix their problems should not be married, because you’ll only bring the other person problems.
At this point he goes on to unveil the ideal of marriage and reminds us all that when we marry, we are taking on “a creature of equal, if of unlike, frailties; whose weak human heart beats no more tunefully” than our own (233). Understanding this, Stevenson then argues that if we get over this and truly understand the institution of marriage, then we should proceed with hope, faith, and find “glimpses of kind virtues” amidst the hardship (235).
I like this argument. Marriage is a lot of work and I think a lot of kids in my ward could benefit from this. My parents taught me well how much work marriage is, but I think many of my friends see it as the answer to their problems. I think marriage is something wonderful and something I now look forward to (though that was not always the case), but it needs to stop being idealized as a fix-all solution. I’ve always felt that no relationship will work well if one or both of the parties are not whole on their own first.
Form:
This was meant to be a persuasive essay. Stevenson obviously has a lot of feeling on the subject because of personal experience (as the biography states), but he leaves it pretty impersonal. In fact, before I read the biography and casually skimmed this essay I misunderstood it completely, thinking that Stevenson was arguing that marriage anything but a positive experience. It is not very concrete and does not give many concrete examples, which might be one reason why it is kind of difficult to wade through.
Along with that the organization is like most of the essays from this time, go with the flow till you reach the conclusion. We don’t really see how the beginning fits with the topic until we get to the end. What I can gather is that the essays starts on one large sentence on hope, goes through a few abstractions, and then argues them. It takes a few paragraphs to get to the point, which is very unlike a more modern essay form.
Stevenson starts a lot of his sentences with “And.” I remember learning that that was a horrible idea in high school, but now it seems to be encouraged. I’ve been trying to figure out how to use it more myself.
5. Going Out for a Walk by Max Beerbohm
Content:
Yet another essay on walking! Beerbohm starts on a claim that says he has never gone out for a walk for his own sake and ends by saying that unlike others, he does not enjoy the activity. It is light humored, but entertaining.
Form:
Beerbohm starts with an absurd, bold claim about never having “gone out for a walk,” kind of like a Chesterton introduction, and then spends the rest of the essay explaining it. Because it seems so unbelievable, it works as a great hook because we are determined to figure out how this is possible. The essay is then organized into three definite points that he comes out and establishes and the essay goes through each point until the conclusion (which shows us that Beerbohm actually has taken a few walks in his days, just not for the same reasons the rest of them do).
As I mentioned, it has a very light humored tone to it and in some ways seems impersonal because it is justifying a strange habit that makes him different.
Lots of quotation marks are also used to show outside voices justifying or reacting to his strange behavior, which keeps it all out of his head.
Another device used in this rather short essay is that he addresses the reader directly, using “you” frequently, which makes it casual and conversation-like.
6. A Piece of Chalk by G.K. Chesterton
Content:
I love pretty much everything written by Chesterton. What I liked most about the content of this piece was the whole “what is white” as a color debate. Even though he meant it more as a moral thing, virtue needing to be tested, the color debate it is one I have had with myself many times. As a painter, white is not a color. Black is. Don’t believe me? Smear the paint on your easel together and see what color you end up with. But, to the scientist, white is the “all color.” According to Chesterton too I guess. I do like this argument much better than all the other “waves” and garbage they use to explain it though. I like this as an artist. I like that he doesn’t draw on very conventional things, and his argument about not needing to be a Wordsworth to appreciate nature simply because you don’t describe it is fantastic. Maybe it is how we can balance feeling romantic while being post modern. I can tell, based on what limited info I have, that this is the nonconforming artist. He is also funny, with parts that made me laugh out loud. Chesterton seems a little bizarre, and I like that.
Form:
The essay begins with “I remember.” This is a pure reminiscing moment, and the entire essay is written in past tense. It is told chronologically, but like Woolf, meandering from concrete image into an interesting significance and overarching theme. He plays with humor. His sentences breaking up his insights are blunt, pulling you back to the moment. He outright trumps the romantic’s argument by doing the whole, “don’t for heaven’s sake, imagine I was going to sketch nature.” He is addressing us as listeners, and he is telling the story, guiding us along with cues.
We see this again with the single paragraph, “Meanwhile I could not find my chalk.” It is a subtle humor. I feel like he is definitely a realist. This style and the images he invokes give a great sense of his character, even within such a short amount of space.
The essay is divided by ellipses between his experience buying chalk and then when he goes out to use the chalk. Because the experience buying the chalk does not tell us why he is doing it, it keeps us reading trying to figure out what he is up to. For breaks between what he is doing in that moment and a thought he is having, the essay does a double space and does not indent the paragraph, like other essays I have come across in this anthology and Best American Travel Writing.
The ending is not spelled out, but there is a clear conclusion. I love that.
7. On Running After One’s Hat b G.K. Chesterton
Content:
This was quite a bit different from A Piece of Chalk. It still had the humor and the “this is how it is people” tone, but the message in this essay was one I needed to hear in the field. So much of our experience is based on our outlook, and Chesterton makes it seem like a real choice we have. “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.” That is a great line.
Form:
The first thing I noticed was that Chesterton says “I feel” and not “I felt.” Where A Piece of Chalk was told in the past tense, here he is telling the story of London’s flooding as a present affair. It holds all the romance of the home country, and yet it is so strange and shocking that the reader wants to keep reading to figure out if this guy is insane or has a point to make. It is bold! Either way, it is a great way to grab the reader’s attention.
The flood was the frame for the essay. It starts and ends making sense of that image, but the whole middle encourages us to revaluate the way we look at misfortune. He does it with humor too, which makes it not feel preachy and gets us to laugh at ourselves instead. He also uses a lot of specific, concrete examples to make his point. This essay is meant to be a persuasive argument.
Another device I noticed that Chesterton uses in this essay is a lot of “as I said” phrases to keep the reader on track. It sounds more casual and conversation-esk without feeling repetitive. This matter-of-fact tone and the repetition also helps establish the ethos of the narrator as someone who is confident in what he is talking about, and someone not afraid to make a point and argue it, even if it is in left field. He seems to thoroughly enjoy it too! By the end of the essay he lets on that we might recognize his claims as a little absurd, but he lightly encourages us to see the extreme as a way to demonstrate a general point. In this sense, I don’t feel like Chesterton is very vulnerable in his essays. It seems that he is more interested in getting us to re-think the way we think and see the world.
8. Street Haunting: A London Adventure by Virginia Woolf
Content:
This is potentially my favorite personal essay of all of the ones I’ve ever read. I have probably read through it fifteen times, but each experience teaches me something new—some image I did not immediately discover. It is genius. It is real. What happens when we travel? I love the image transforming from “the self our friends know us by” and becoming “part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers.” How we can do anything with a pretext, even something like going out for a pencil. It makes me wonder why I travel.
I love how Woolf is able to show how we can be in our minds and outside—how we can be sitting at dinner and somehow be off thinking about something entirely different. It is so in line with how we really live. I don’t know how to adequately express how this piece resonates with me. I want to read all of her works.
Form:
Woolf’s stream of conscious style is the most notable of the features she uses in her essays. We have a lot of concrete images and metaphors to keep the piece moving and interesting. She has no problem using “too many” commas and adverbs, and it flows like the content, a journey in the mind.
This style leads us along with her. It is not a past reflection, but yet her observations are written in the past tense, while her thoughts are in the present, drawing attention to that. It is not a traditional essay. You read it as if it is happening right now, like you are right there, and she is right beside you, except that it seems more like it is coming from your own head. Either way, it is your eyes that see it. The transitions seem to be a lot of “ands” and “perhaps” and “buts.” There is no arguable pattern of flow of an event or subject. It just flows to one topic to the next, and it works.
The narrator does not outright state her own feelings, or insights, or reactions. It is a description of “out there,” and so we understand her personality from a distance. This is an interesting way of being personal and vulnerable in an essay. This style tells us something about her. She is withdrawn, an observer, and reflecting the way it would naturally come to the mind.
9. The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf
Content:
Okay, this is slightly disturbing. It is well done, but it is clear that the dying moth, the one that had our sympathies “on the side of life,” (267), is probably a metaphor for Woolf herself. Death and life were both left as strange and there was no kind of wrap up conclusion to make sense of it all. It is left ambiguous, which I found powerful.
Form:
Woolf paints some awesome images! If they were not as concrete and beautiful, it would probably be really hard to pull of the stream of conscious writing style. The first line is a great example: “dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom” or “yellow-underwing.” It is just enjoyable to read, even if we don’t understand it all on a first, second, or even third read through.
The moth is a metaphor. That is a device worth noting. Not only is it an interesting metaphor to Woolf knowing that she killed herself later, but to all of us, trying to make sense of the whole “to be or not to be” feelings we have as humans sometimes.
This essay is not very personal. The entire thing is written in the past tense, and it feels withdrawn if anything. It seems to be more of a string of vivid observations than a kind of argument set out to prove something. It is a chronological and unbroken narrative, short and to the point. The objective nature of the essay seems to match the content of the coldness of death.
10. Unpacking My Library by Walter Benjamin
Content:
I enjoyed reading this essay. I think it speaks to the book collector in all of us, but he was clearly an extreme of it. He goes on throughout the essay to explain what it really means to be a book collector, and concludes that they are so much more than books. They are “not thoughts but images, memories” (369).
I have always loved Walter Benjamin. I did not know that he wrote personal essays as well, and was kind of shocked to find him in this anthology—wondering if it was even the same guy. I appreciated having this side of him as well as the typical texts we associate with him.
I am left wondering how much an in influence the translation had on this essay. It reads really well, but with something like this, it had to have changed it a lot.
Form:
This essay is told from the first person, present tense. The rest of the essay then follows a chronological reminiscing pattern. As Benjamin goes through each point he gives them equal but separate importance. It does not necessarily grow to the end, it is more natural flowing than that. This matches the content really well because the whole thing is about the experience of him unpacking his library and thinking through his life and the events that brought him to each of the books he now owns. In a sense it feels kind of stream of conscious the way Woolf is, but a lot easier to follow.
He starts the essay by bringing us right to the scene of unpacking, which is exactly where he wants us. There is no flowery syntax or images, he puts the point at the front and does not distract us from it. He uses now once in awhile throughout the middle as well to keep us on the same page. By the end he also says that he is now on the “last half-emptied case and it is way past midnight,” using that same device to reorient us and distinguish the difference between his thoughts and what he wants us to feel is the present.
Other notes to make about the form: Benjamin uses a few quotes in other languages from classical texts, establishing himself as not just a collector but a “well read” kind of guy and his language is very formal. His sentences tend to be long, and there is little to no humor included. It seems impersonal but direct and serous.
11. Hashish in Marseilles by Walter Benjamin
Content:
Okay, so here we have Benjamin on a hashish drug high. That was interesting… I could not relate to it very well, but it was interesting to watch how his mind patterns changed as the drug got more into his system.
Form:
The preliminary remark is important for this essay. Benjamin takes a good chunk of time to explain the effects of hashish to give us context for the essay and his own trip. He probably realizes that most of his readers are not going to know specifically what he would be talking about otherwise, so he has to spell it out.
The actual essay begins with a place, date, and time. We are given orientation, but it is almost medical-journal esk. At first he starts out with pretty coherent sentences, but by the end he slips into more and more subconscious writing. Past and present tenses get mixed around, and that also helps us get the feeling he wants us to get of being disoriented. There is no dialogue in this essay, except for when the narrator is talking to himself.
The end of the essay comes when Benjamin comes out of the “trance” (375). Yet, the tone seems to be more or less the same as the rest of the essay—kind of quiet, distant, calm and formal. He definitely has a distinct voice very similar to what we saw in Unpacking my Library.
I like that the form follows the actual trip he is having on this drug. Just another example of how important it is to have form and content line up (and maybe why I would have such a hard time talking about form without content).
12. He and I by Natalia Ginzburg
Content:
This was really sad, but really well done commenting on the difficulties of a husband wife relationship in the eyes of the wife. It highlights many of my own concerns with marriage—how you can be in such an intimate relationship as marriage and yet be so completely different and distant from each other. This sums up everything I do not want to think and feel in my future marriage.
Form:
The form was very distinct and powerful—the sentences were short and plain. Most of the paragraphs are just a line or two, and it goes through different aspects of their marriage by identifying their opposites. “He is this and I am that,” etc., and always in a way to put the narrator down. The narrator never includes names. She is “I” and her husband is always “he.” I think that helps make this essay universal, even if she goes through many specifics.
There is no specific organization to this essay. It just goes through a list of opposites and then once in awhile gives us a snap shot of a moment where this was the case.
To help with the intimacy of this essay, it is told in the present tense. The power of this essay is that it is honest and real, giving a lot of concrete examples. It is so simple, but it works so well! This is a style that I want to try to play with at some point, though I’m not sure if fits so well with my India essays.
13. Why Do I Fast? By Wole Soyinka
Content:
I have read a few of Soyinka’s plays in the past while I was in Ghana, so it was kind of fun to see that he is also a personal essayist. I was not the biggest fan of the theme, but I am glad I had some experience in West Africa to better understand why fasting would be important to him. Then again, maybe India taught me more about that than Ghana did…
Form:
This was written in a really unique form. The first line is written as a question. “Why do I fast?” The rest of the essay goes into those points and tries to answer that question.
He answers with the obvious answer, “yes, self-indulgence” (154) to knock out all of the superficial answers by getting it out of the way. A few paragraphs later he then talks about “stomach devils,” which comes across kind of strange, and mentions demons later as well. This is in the “Other Nations” section, but without understanding a bit about Soyinka and his history I think it would be pretty odd to just pick up.
Questions are raised in the middle as well to walk us through. “What do I do all day?” is a good example of that. The questions to himself are the same questions we are kind of asking him, and they are what guide us through the essay.
Yet, it is also chronological as well. Towards the end he starts saying “tenth day of fast” and “eleventh day.” By the tenth day he does not have much to say, his energy clearly gone and written in the form of ellipses.
Let’s see. This is a jumble of devices… A poem is used. One that he supposedly wrote while he was on a fast. By that time the tense shifts to past and we are looking at it from outside of his head. Italics are used for emphasis, but also to show us when he is back in his head, and to be honest, I think it is a little overkill. Maybe it is supposed to feel like the Benjamin essay on a drug trip, but I think it got a little choppy. It is not a form that I would try to attempt, that is for sure.
In the end, we are still not really at a conclusion on why Soyinka fasts. He doesn’t seem to know either…thus ending on not one, but two questions now.
14. On Being an American by H.L. Mencken
Content:
This was a selection of three essays that were published first in a newspaper. Because of this, they seem to be written for the average, everyday kind of reader. It is not very personal and uses humor and statistics to make a point about the modern day American. It was enjoyable, but not exactly life changing material.
I did like the comments in the first essay on other countries feelings on America. It is relatable to my experience here in India. We are like the little brother, as my British friend Amanda once told me. People see Americans as “easy to excite…easy to fool…but it is very hard to dislike them” (506).
Form:
More so than any other essay I have read so far, Mencken uses a lot of statistics and percentages to talk about the American population. Like any of them, it is meant to establish authority as someone who has done their homework.
All of the essays are written in the present tense and are not very personal. Yet, the humor and the tone are meant for a general audience, and the language deliberately caters to that.
The second essay in particular reminds me of some of the others I have read because it starts with a question and then spends the rest of the essay answering that question. It is the more serious of the three essays, and is sandwiched by the first and third that take it back to a funny, impersonal point. The fourth essay draws the most from personal examples, but it is still never vulnerable the way that we saw in other essays.
I’m trying to understand why these five essays were all included together. They seem pretty independent from each other. It adds dimension but at the same time I don’t even think I would consider it all one essay. I guess they don’t have to fit neatly together to be a collection, kind of like what I want with my own essays, but you would think that they would match a bit better. The last essay, or sentence I should say, was funny, and again, another bizarre 100% claim. It also ends on a rhetorical question, “if this is not joy, then what is?” (509), which I think pretty much sums up the content.
15. Once More to the Lake by E.B. White
Content:
I tend to like E.B. White more than not. I liked the images of this story. It is kind of like a picture book. He uses such vivid details that it takes us right to the Lake, even if we may not have any kind of experience like that. The details really make this what it is.
I can’t lie though; most of this went over my head. As pretty as the language was, I got lost in it.
Form:
That first paragraph is intense! In one giant sentence White is able to say so much! White has a very distinct tone and tends to have very long sentences. The whole essay here was told in the past tense.
The essay takes turns describing an event and then exploring the meaning of that event. It did have a really strange ending though. I guess this is a generational piece. White seems to want us to feel what his son feels, and how they are both connected by the lake. He does this by writing that he is watching his son experience the same things that he is, without really summing up the end in a clean conclusion.
16. The Ring of Time by E.B. White
Content:
Here we combine two rather different contexts, a circus performer and racism, and put them into one essay through the interpretation of one narrators mind. I think it is a cool idea, but I got lost several times. It was not my favorite essay in this anthology…
Form:
The first line drops us right into the scene of the circus without saying he is at the circus. There are a lot of vivid images that helps orient us. He uses onomatopoeia as well! That was kind of fun. I felt like I could hear and smell his experience at the circus.
The organization seems to be pretty straight forward. An event that once occurred (the whole thing is in past tense) will be described in great detail and then he will draw out the insights.
The essay seems to be divided into two sections. Both are very different—one is about a circus performer and getting insider her head, and the second as about his own experiences. The style seems to be kind of stream of conscious, because his insights and jumps are not entirely clear to me. Unlike some other essays I’ve read here, this one does not give me many clues that we are shifting gears. His lengthy syntax also adds to the stream of consciousness, though there are not many fragments or breaks in thought the way other writers have done it. Instead it is more fluid and steady.
17. The Courage of Turtles by Edward Hoagland
Content:
This was a very vulnerable and sad essay. I think the title is kind of ironic, because it seems to be more about the courage of the narrator. I like this narrator—I like that he collects and tries to save turtles in New York City. That is such a strange, random thing to do. I think it said a lot about him.
You certainly do not leave this feeling warm and happy. It was sad almost the entire way through it, and the fact that the guy just walked away at the end was really tragic somehow. We came to feel about the turtle the same way that he did. He tried to do the right thing, but in the end he was the turtle killer. Sad sad sad. But good.
Form:
This essay was divided into two parts. The first part starts with a really bizarre sentence, which hooks us, and then gives us a little bit of background about him and where his fascination with turtles began as a kid.
The second part of the essay, divided by asterisks, takes us into his adulthood and where his turtle obsession seems to have taken him—why turtles? Most of the second essay is observation. It also includes a lot of background history and information about turtles, giving the narrator credibility as a turtle expert and not some guy who just likes pets. This shows depth to the characters fascination with turtles and that through the years he has put a lot of thought and energy into them. As he talks about it though, the reader is not left bored since he includes a lot of vivid images and great descriptions. The final description of putting the turtle in the Hudson was especially vivid.
This whole essay was told in the past tense. I’m not sure that the author intended any real message, but rather wanted to tell a story and express a part of himself. It seems to be a bit confessional as well. There is not a lot of humor in this. The narrator puts himself down and paints himself just as vulnerable as the writing. He feels bad about his lack of real aid to the turtles, and in turn we feel bad for him for feeling that way.
This would certainly be a form I could imitate for some of my India essays. It is one I will come back to when I am drafting.
18. In Bed by Joan Didion
Content:
This was an interesting, though not very relatable essay on migraines. It was more of a defense than anything where the narrator voices her agitation with people who do not understand and make light of them as mere headaches. The content was strange to me, but I think it was well done and I enjoyed reading it, even though I don’t have problems with migraanes.
Form:
The essay begins in present tense, reverts to past to describe her childhood problems with migraines, and then gets back to the present again half way through. I like the convention she uses twice at the beginning of this argument that says, “three, four, sometimes five times a month,” etc. It is more conversational instead of saying, three to five times a month I get a bad headache. It shows that this is such a common occurrence that she has stopped keeping track of them, kind of like what we eat for breakfast.
This is meant to be persuasive. It gives personal examples and then talks about it from a medical perspective to give the narrator credibility, and we believe her since she is already saying we don’t know what she is talking about. There is not a lot of humor in this, and while more casual it does have an element of formality to by steering free of colloquial language, probably to help establish her as a credible source of information on migraines.
The end is especially strange. After Didion has educated us all about how those who don’t have migraines don’t understand, she then goes on to say something like she likes them. She could only do that at the end once she has established that we are outsiders and don’t understand her situation, or her pleasure, when the headache is gone.
By the end I am left with the question, why this title???
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