Romantic Period Essayists

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Romantic Period Essayists

• A Presentation for English 2323
• By Dr. Brenda Cornell

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Definition

• An essay (from the French word essai, meaning
  trial or attempt) is defined as a literary
  composition devoted to the presentation of the
  writer's own ideas on a topic and generally
  addressing a particular aspect of the subject.
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Development

• The essay is a European invention, a product of
  the Renaissance period. The first writer of
  essays, who popularized the form, was the French
  writer Montaigne. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
  is regarded as the father of the English essay.

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The Romantic Essay

• The development of the form may be considered a
  result of the Renaissance emphasis on the
  individual, which fostered subjective exploration
  of one's inner self in relation to the outside
  world, a personal emphasis and the equivalent of
  lyric poetry in nonfiction form. It is easy to
  see how the essay fits into the literature of the
  Romantic period.

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Romantic Period Essayists

• Charles Lamb-known by his pen name, Elia.
  Collected essays titled The Essays of Elia.
  Collaborated with his sister Mary to produce
  Tales from Shakespeare, a childrens book.
• William Hazlittessayist and art critic (On
  Gusto is one of his pieces, a critique of
  several art works.
• Thomas de QuinceyThe Prostitute Ann is one of
  his contemporary portraits, an introspective look
  at London society. This essay is from de
  Quinceys well-known collection, Confessions of
  an Opium Eater.
• Mary WollstonecraftVindication of the Rights of
  Women followed on the heels of Thomas Paines
  famous work, Rights of Man. Wollstonecraft
  defended the underprivileged of her own sex (poor
  in many ways but mainly because of their sex).

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Conclusions

• The romantic essay, like the romantic poem,
  embodies the persona of the writer (use of the
  first person pronoun in Lamb and de Quincey).
• It represents a struggle on the part of the
  writer to make a controlling point (thesis) about
  a certain subject, develop it, and reach
  conclusions.

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Works Cited

• Abrams et. al. The Norton Anthology of English
  Literature. 7th ed. NY Norton, 2000.
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