The Art of the Personal Essay

Customer Reviews

• 5 out of 5
  
  
  by Michael from Brooklyn, NY | Feb 12, 2008
  

  So many great essays in this anthology that it would be worthy for that reason alone, but Lopate's organizational principles make this especially useful for the essayist in search of models, or for the reader who is chasing the many forms of a specific type of essay, or for anyone who enjoys reading personal nonfiction. I never fail to feel a buzz of anticipatory joy when I pick this volume up, and writing out this Goodreads note makes me realize that I really should dip back into this soon.

  
  
   2 people found this review helpful
  
  

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• 4 out of 5
  
  
  by Jessica from London, The United Kingdom | Feb 7, 2008
  

  My favorite essay in this thick, heavy, door-stopping book is a humble writing of G.K. Chesterton entitled "A Piece of Chalk". I absolutely adore drawing with chalk and so of course I felt connected to him right off the bat. It was actually the first time I'd ever read Chesterton before, and I instantly fell in love. There is something in his writing that resonates with something inside me... in other words, it feels good. This anthology also includes other masters, both classic and modern such as Didion, Seneca, among many, many others. Despite the size, it's very easy to read through and find your own favorites thanks to the table that sorts the essays by theme.

  
  
   1 people found this review helpful
  
  

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• 4 out of 5
  
  
  by Karen from Seattle, WA | Jun 5, 2009
  

  I always come back to this anthology for Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Lantern Bearers," probably one of my favorite pieces of all time, by one of my favorite authors. The quote below isn't inspirational or aphoristic, but when I think of my favorite quotes, this paragraph rings out. Read aloud, its words and rhythm (say "top-coat buttoned") are beautiful on their own, but as far as the sentiment underpinning it, I could almost take it as a manifesto:
  
  "But the talk, at any rate, was but a condiment; and these gatherings themselves only accidents in the career of the lantern-bearer. The essence of this bliss was to walk by yourself in the black night; the slide shut, the top-coat buttoned; not a ray escaping, whether to conduct your footsteps or to make your glory public: a mere pillar of darkness in the dark; and all the while, deep down in the privacy of your fool’s heart, to know you had a bull’s-eye at your belt, and to exult and sing over the knowledge."
  
  Also, two other standouts: I recently read The Pillow Book, because the Sei Shonagon excerpt included in this collection, Hateful Things, is so viciously funny. The Crack Up is a masterpiece, but I can never re-create that first reading, where I really understood for the first time how a good author can lead you so nonconsenually down a path you didn't expect to walk. I reccomend it to others so they can experience that artful violation for the first time.

  
  
   1 people found this review helpful
  
  

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• 5 out of 5
  
  
  by Jessica from Ravenna, OH | Jan 7, 2009
  

  A wonderful collection, from Seneca to Adrienne Rich. Essays are in chronological order, but the table of contents also provides listings by topic and theme, so that if you are teaching, or in the mood for a certain kind of reading, you can look up 'romance' or 'nature' or 'walking' or 'food' and read a corresponding piece. Delectable!

  
  

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• 4 out of 5
  
  
  by Mel from Powhatan, VA | Aug 16, 2008
  

  The Art of the Personal Essay is an amazing collection of nonfiction essays that spans hundreds of years. It offers the cityscape that is the development of Creative Nonfiction. Whilst I was engrossed in each essay, I confess the power of the text becomes lost if one tries to read it as a whole (or assignment). I find myself returning to the essays contained there often; opening the book and simply being drawn into a world in miniature, perhaps Virginia Woolf, or Richard Rodriguez, or some ancient Chinese writer. A text that should be on the shelf of every nonfiction writer, and one that should not collect dust as it offers insight to the narrative of the human condition that all writers to which all writers wish to add.

  
  

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