Junior Modern Essays [antikvár]

Before you begin to read all the delightful things collected together in this little book, there is one point upon which you should be quite clear: What is an essay? Well, the term is a pretty wicle one. .Literally it means "an attempt"—a shot at hitting the mark—a blow on the head of the literary nail that pins an idea into permanence. Your essay may be compressed or diffuse, terse or discursive, grave or gay—but in every instance It is a literary gadget—a cameo—a frog in amber—or whatever small, clear-cut, and finished object you care to compare it to. It belongs to a different plane from that of the great literary forms—the drama, the novel, or the epic, and it is in prose rather what the lyric is in poetry. When you have read a great number of essays you find that they all have this in common: the writer has chosen a single subject for the theme of each essay, and expressed his own thoughts about it in a style that is as pleasing and readable as may be. Sometimes the style ís closely packed and brilliant, sometimes it is rambling and talkative—but you are alwavs on the end of a string—a verv short string at that—circling round the central idea. This is true of another short prose form— the short story—but the essay has no plot nor crisis as the story has; and the story is not, or should not be, a disquisition like the essay. In short, your essayist chooses a subject and says his say about it, gripping your interest at once, holding you to it till he has done, and then letting go with a satisfying finish. It is a charming literary form, and a delicate one to 5