On Essays: Montaigne to the Present

What is an essay? It is at once a name for the methodical writing all students do at school and university, and a kind of non-methodical writing which has been a central form of literature since the late sixteenth century - the ‘fourth genre’, often neglected by comparison with fiction, poetry, and drama. In the twenty-first century, essays have once again become an essential part of the literary landscape, with writers such as Claudia Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Maggie Nelson widely read and reviewed. On Essays is a series of seventeen elegant essays on major themes in the history of the genre, written by celebrated essayists, critics, and scholars - essays which, taken together, form the most substantial book on the essay in English hitherto published.