It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it. George Orwell was one of the most celebrated essayists in the English language, and there are quite a few of his essays which are probably better known than any of his other writings apart from Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Stefan Collini presents a collection of Orwell's longer, major essays as well as a selection of shorter pieces, arranged into three categories: Personal/Descriptive, Literary, and Political.

'A good essay must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not out.' According to Virginia Woolf, the goal of the essay 'is simply that it should give pleasure...It should lay us under a spell with its first word, and we should only wake, refreshed, with its last.' One of the best practitioners of the art she analysed so rewardingly, Woolf displayed her essay-writing skills across a wide range of subjects, with all the craftsmanship, substance, and rich allure of her novels. This selection brings together thirty of her best essays, including the famous 'Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown', a clarion call for modern fiction. She discusses the arts of writing and of reading, and the particular role and reputation of women writers. She writes movingly about her father and the art of biography, and of the London scene in the early decades of the twentieth century. Overall, these pieces are as indispensable to an understanding of this great writer as they are enchanting in their own right. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This book contains a collection of essays by William Hazlitt. They were collected this form by George Sampson and first published by in 1917. This anthology includes all of Hazlitt’s essays from "The Round Table" to the posthumous pieces. The first four essays show him as the 'Boswell of Lamb' and the candid friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The next three are an extension of this group, forming a pleasant parallel to 'Lamb’s Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading' and his delightful essays on the old actors. The last three show us Hazlitt savouring things of the world, rejoicing in the multitude of sporting crowds and in the solitude of lonely wanderings. Contents include: “My First Acquaintance with Poets”, “On the Conversation of Authors”, “Of Persons One would Wish to have Seen”, “On Reading Old Books”, “On Actors and Acting”, “On a Landscape of Nicholas Poussin”, “On the Pleasure of Painting”, “The Fight”, “The Indian Jugglers”, etcetera. William Carew Hazlitt (1834 - 1913) was an English writer, editor, and lawyer. His father was the barrister and registrar William Hazlitt, his grandfather the writer and critic William Hazlitt, and his great-grandfather the author and minister by the same name. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Contains 14 essays on Fielding published during the 1980s and 1990s. The essays include one on Fielding's drama; multiple treatments of Jonathan Wild, Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, and Amelia; as well as some on diverse topics involving several work s. The editor's introduction begins by outlining the debate regarding Fielding's morality versus his reputation as a realistic novelist and his evolution through "Christian Humanism" to the more ambiguous moral intent of later works like Amelia. He compares reader responses to Fielding and his rival Richardson. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Sean O’Faolain (1900-1991) was Ireland’s leading social and political critic in the period following the country’s independence from the United Kingdom. Since his death, scholarly opinion has alternately cast him as an arch-revisionist, a liberal nationalist, and a frustrated republican. The Selected Essays of Sean O’Faolain reassesses his reputation by showing that he wrote in the tradition of post-Enlightenment European intellectuals, and that while he was a significant figure in Ireland, his work extends beyond immediate national concerns. This volume includes over fifty unabridged essays by O’Faolain on a wide range of subjects – from canonical writers to architecture, from religious scandals to economics, from nationalism to internationalism, from long-dead historical figures to recent controversies. O’Faolain’s fearlessness in taking on the major political, cultural, and religious figures of his day, his masterly use of rhetoric, and his intellectual acuity have contributed to his works being quoted often by scholars working across several disciplines. Many of these essays appear here in print for the first time since they were published in the foremost periodicals of their day. An extensive introduction and helpful annotations contextualise and explain them for a new audience. In his re-readings of history and challenges to dominant historiographical trends, O’Faolain has become a pariah to some and a hero to others. The Selected Essays of Sean O’Faolain bridges some of these competing visions, presenting a more complex figure through his varied corpus of writing.

Kniha zkoumá, jakou roli sehrály romány Henryho Fieldinga v průběhu všeobecné reformy veřejného vystupování, přičemž se blíže soustřeďuje na vývoj maskulinních vzorů, který je spojen s proměňujícím se chápáním zdvořilosti v letech 1742–1751. Publikace prezentuje analýzy Fieldingových obrazů maskulinity v souvislosti s dynamickými požadavky na ekonomické, politické a estetické standardy, a nabízí tak přínosný a komplexní pohled na jeho dílo v dobovém kontextu.