Bob Blaisdell 
Great English Essays 
From Bacon to Chesterton

This collection, spanning four centuries of English wit, wisdom, and common sense, contains the thoughts of a number of renowned masters of the essay. From Francis Bacon–the English author who reputedly imported the genre from France, to literary critic, mystery writer, and social commentator G. K. Chesterton, more than twenty writers express their views on such subjects as walking, writing, traveling, sleeping, pets, friends, and childhood.

Included among the literary offerings are ‘Sir Roger de Coverley at Spring-Garden’ by Joseph Addison, ‘A Meditation Upon a Broomstick’ by Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dick Minim the Critic, ‘ as well as compositions by Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Lamb, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, and other noted authors.

The works are presented chronologically and original publication dates are given where available.

Table of Content

Francis Bacon

  Of Love

  Of Cunning

  Of Ambition

  Of Gardens

Thomas Fuller

  The Good Schoolmaster

Owen Feltham

  On Dreams

Abraham Cowley

  Of Myself

Jonathan Swift

  A Meditation on a Broomstick, According to the Style and Manner of the Hon. Robert Boyle’s Meditations

  A Modest Proposal

Joseph Addison

  Sir Roger de Coverley at Spring-Garden

  The Tory Fox-Hunter

  Meditations in Westminster Abbey

Richard Steele

  Jack Lizard

  Recollections of Childhood

Samuel Johnson

  Dick Minim the Critic

  Spring

Sir Joshua Reynolds

  Art Connoisseurs

Oliver Goldsmith

  The Character of an Important Trifler, Beau Tibbs

  The Character of the Trifler Continued: with That of His Wife, His House, and Furniture

  National Prejudice

James Boswell

  Passionate Love

  Parents and Their Children

Charles Lamb

  Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist

  A Bachelor’s Complaint of the Behaviour of Married People

  The Superannuated Man

  Old China

William Hazlitt

  On Familiar Style

  On Going a Journey

Leigh Hunt

  A Few Thoughts on Sleep

  Getting Up on Cold Mornings

William Makepeace Thackeray

  Tunbridge Toys

Charles Dickens

  Lying Awake

Anthony Trollope

  A Walk in a Wood

John Ruskin

  The Clouds Are There

John Addington Symonds

  Personal Style

W. H. Hudson

  Her Own Village

  Dandy: A Story of a Dog

Alice Meynell

  Fellow Travellers with a Bird

  The Unready


Richard Jefferies


  The July Grass

Augustine Birrell

  Book-Buying

Robert Louis Stevenson

  Notes on the Movements of Young Children

George Bernard Shaw

  On Pleasure Bent

G. K. Chesterton

  A Defence of Skeletons

  A Defence of Nonsense

  Twelve Men

Virginia Woolf

  Hours in a Library

D. H. Lawrence

  Adolf