oxford book of essays

  • Literature & Fiction
  • Anthologies

Amazon Prime

Your Amazon Prime 30-day FREE trial includes:

Unlimited Premium Delivery is available to Amazon Prime members. To join, select "Yes, I want a free trial with FREE Premium Delivery on this order." above the Add to Basket button and confirm your Amazon Prime free trial sign-up.

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, you will be charged £95/year for Prime (annual) membership or £8.99/month for Prime (monthly) membership.

Buy new: £12.23 £12.23 FREE delivery: Saturday, Feb 24 in the UK Dispatches from: Amazon Sold by: Amazon

  • Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. For a full refund with no deduction for return shipping, you can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition.
  • Learn more about free returns.
  • Go to your orders and start the return
  • Select the return method

Buy used £6.02

Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Image Unavailable

The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)

  • To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

John Gross

The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse) Paperback – 15 Dec. 2008

Purchase options and add-ons, book description.

  • Editorial Reviews

About the Author

  • ISBN-10 0199556555
  • ISBN-13 978-0199556557
  • Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
  • Publication date 15 Dec. 2008
  • Language English
  • Dimensions 4.32 x 12.7 x 19.3 cm
  • Print length 704 pages
  • See all details

Frequently bought together

The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press, USA (15 Dec. 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 704 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199556555
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199556557
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.32 x 12.7 x 19.3 cm
  • 2,399 in Fiction Anthologies (Books)
  • 2,482 in Essays, Journals & Letters
  • 12,365 in Fiction Classics (Books)

About the author

oxford book of essays

John Gross was the editor of The Times Literary Supplement in London, a senior book editor and book critic on the staff of The New York Times in New York, and theatre critic for The Sunday Telegraph. He was also literary editor of The New Statesman and Spectator magazines.

He is author of several very well regarded books, and has been described by both The Guardian and The Spectator as “the best-read man in Britain”. The Guardian also wrote: “Mr Gross is one good argument for the survival of the species”.

In a lead editorial about John Gross, The Times (of London) described him as “one of Britain’s most distinguished men of letters… Gross would have been a great academic. But he conveyed his voluminous knowledge to a far wider readership, whose mental lives he enriched.”

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

  • Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

oxford book of essays

Items related to The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose &...

The oxford book of essays (oxford books of prose & verse) - softcover.

9780199556557: The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)

This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.

  • About this title
  • About this edition

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
  • Publication date 2008
  • ISBN 10  0199556555
  • ISBN 13  9780199556557
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 1
  • Number of pages 704
  • Editor Gross John
  • Rating 4.15 avg rating • ( 158 ratings by Goodreads )

Convert currency

Shipping: US$ 3.50 Within U.S.A.

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

Featured edition.

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780192141859 Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1991 Hardcover

Oxford..., 1992 Softcover

Oxford..., 2002 Softcover

Oxford..., 1999 Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

The oxford book of essays (oxford books of prose verse).

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0199556555

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0199556555

The Oxford Book of Essays

Book Description Condition: New. OVER 45 IN STOCK ON 02/15/2024. PAPERBACK. Seller Inventory # G0199556555011

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0199556555

The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0199556555-new

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DADAX0199556555

Oxford Book of Essays

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 5665552-n

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 704 pages. 7.75x5.25x1.75 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0199556555

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. In Never used condition. Seller Inventory # Nbynew0199556555

The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse) by Gross, John [Paperback ]

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780199556557

The Oxford book of essays

By john gross.

  • 5 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

The Oxford book of essays by chosen and edited by John Gross.

Preview Book

My Reading Lists:

Use this Work

Create a new list

My book notes.

My private notes about this edition:

Check nearby libraries

  • Library.link

Buy this book

  • Better World Books
  • Bookshop.org

When you buy books using these links the Internet Archive may earn a small commission .

This edition doesn't have a description yet. Can you add one ?

Previews available in: English

Showing 1 featured edition. View all 1 editions?

Add another edition?

Book Details

Published in.

Oxford [England], New York

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [xiv]-xviii).

Classifications

The physical object, community reviews (0).

Cover of: Short Stuff

  • Created April 1, 2008
  • 10 revisions

Wikipedia citation

Copy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help ?

  • Project Gutenberg
  • 72,926 free eBooks

The Oxford Book of American Essays by W. C. Brownell et al.

Book Cover

Read now or download (free!)

Similar books, about this ebook.

  • Privacy policy
  • About Project Gutenberg
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Information

iBiblio

Tutorials, Study Guides & More

Oxford Book of Essays

July 29, 2014 by Roy Johnson

classics of the essay genre written in English 1700-2000

The Oxford Book of Essays is a compilation of short literary prose studies edited by John Gross of pieces written in English stretching from Francis Bacon in 1625 to Clive James in 1980. He admits in his introduction that it’s almost impossible to define the literary essay (as distinct from the academic essay). The essay has no set rules or even recognisable shape: it can take the form of a moral homily, a character sketch, a piece of travel writing, or even a book review. The only requirement (to paraphrase Henry James) is that it should be interesting.

The grand-father of the Renaissance essay is Michel de Montaigne – who is actually mentioned in Fancis Bacon’s earliest entry in this collection – a figure who almost ‘invented’ the modern discursive essay, which generally combines personal reflection, entertaining anecdote, and historical background reference.

Oxford Book of Essays

As a literary genre the essay came to its first maturity when an educated readership coincided with the establishment of a vigorous periodical press. This was during the heyday of the The Spectator and the Tatler edited by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.

These journals also introduced the idea of a persona who made comments on coffee house gossip and social characters of the time . In the ‘Sir Roger de Coverley Papers’ Addison pushed the boundaries of the essay form towards narrative fiction. And he writes entertaining reflections on mortality and death couched in essays on the buildings at his disposal – Westminster Abbey and The Royal Exchange.

In general the pieces written around this golden era tend to be witty, satirical, and deeply engaged with contemporary events. They represent the forming of modern post-Renaissance consciousness – the Age of Enlightenment. Even James Boswell’s slightly self-regarding style cannot dampen the impact of his passionate tirade against militarism in On War , a piece occasioned by a visit to the Arsenal in Venice.

The form of the assay is certainly loose, but there always seems to be a danger of falling into triviality – as in William Hazlitt’s piece considering the affectations of Beau Brummell or Anthony Trollope’s Pooteresque railings against plumbers. But on the other hand there is no rule that says the essay must always be serious. Nevertheless, it is those essays and reviews that embrace a rigorous critical attitude which remain the most impressive.

G.K. Chesterton’s defense of ‘penny dreadfuls’ which predates George Orwell’s essay on ‘Boy’s Weeklies’ by forty years is one of these. Philip Larkin’s review of the work of the Opies on children’s street rhymes is impressive as it calls the whole concept of childhood into question. V.S. Naipaul takes a similar attitude, smashing the reputation of Christopher Columbus (real name Christobal Colon) into pieces. And the finest work in the collection is an impassioned study of the White Man and the Black Man in America written by James Baldwin when he was staying in a remote Swiss village.

In terms of selection and editing, John Gross does seem to be cheating somewhat by including ‘essays’ which have been created by shortening longer pieces of work (by writers such as Lord Macaulay, John Stuart Mill, and Matthew Arnold). This approach devalues the very notion of the essay as a genre and reduces its definition to any short example of prose. But Gross compensates by including some excellent pieces from later twentieth century writers we might not normally think of as essayists – proving that the genre is still alive and in very good health.

© Roy Johnson 2014

Buy the book at Amazon UK Buy the book at Amazon US

John Gross (editor), The Oxford Book of Essays , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp.704, ISBN: 0199556555

More on literature More on the novella More on literary studies More on short stories

Get in touch

  • Advertising
  • T & C’s
  • Testimonials

oxford book of essays

  • Skip to Main Content

Unlimited access to the largest selection of audiobooks and textbooks aligned to school curriculum on the only app specifically designed for struggling readers, like students dealing with dyslexia, blindness or other learning differences. Become a member today and enjoy 20% off – use code: AUDIO20.

Image for The Oxford book of essays

The Oxford book of essays

Oxford paperbacks, by gross john..

The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favourites, recent examples that deserve to be betterknown. A particularly welcome feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. This is an anthology that opens with wise words about the nature of truth, and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps,the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey. It contains some of the most eloquent writing in English, and some of the most entertaining.

Available format(s):

Classic Audio

Log in to read

What's an Audio Format Audio format refers to the way an audiobook is recorded. Not all audiobooks have the same formats. Classic Audio: A human reading an audiobook without the text displayed. VOICEtext (H): Human narrator with text that you can follow along with as it reads. VOICEtext (S): Synthetic voice with text you can follow along with as it reads.

This book is only partially available. Why?

Book Information

Add to bookshelf.

Available on the App Store (iTunes)

Approval Needed

Approval requested.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

oxford book of essays

  • This Just In
  • Grateful Dead
  • Old Time Radio
  • 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
  • Audio Books & Poetry
  • Computers, Technology and Science
  • Music, Arts & Culture
  • News & Public Affairs
  • Spirituality & Religion
  • Radio News Archive

oxford book of essays

  • Flickr Commons
  • Occupy Wall Street Flickr
  • NASA Images
  • Solar System Collection
  • Ames Research Center

oxford book of essays

  • All Software
  • Old School Emulation
  • MS-DOS Games
  • Historical Software
  • Classic PC Games
  • Software Library
  • Kodi Archive and Support File
  • Vintage Software
  • CD-ROM Software
  • CD-ROM Software Library
  • Software Sites
  • Tucows Software Library
  • Shareware CD-ROMs
  • Software Capsules Compilation
  • CD-ROM Images
  • ZX Spectrum
  • DOOM Level CD

oxford book of essays

  • Smithsonian Libraries
  • FEDLINK (US)
  • Lincoln Collection
  • American Libraries
  • Canadian Libraries
  • Universal Library
  • Project Gutenberg
  • Children's Library
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Books by Language
  • Additional Collections

oxford book of essays

  • Prelinger Archives
  • Democracy Now!
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • TV NSA Clip Library
  • Animation & Cartoons
  • Arts & Music
  • Computers & Technology
  • Cultural & Academic Films
  • Ephemeral Films
  • Sports Videos
  • Videogame Videos
  • Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

  • Wayback Machine (iOS)
  • Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

  • Explore the Collections
  • Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

  • Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

The Oxford Book of American Essays

Item preview.

item image #1

Share or Embed This Item

Flag this item for.

  • Graphic Violence
  • Explicit Sexual Content
  • Hate Speech
  • Misinformation/Disinformation
  • Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
  • Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

3 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by arkiver2 on July 28, 2018

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

George Fisher, "Beware Euphoria: The Moral Roots and Racial Myths of America's War on Drugs" (Oxford UP, 2024‪)‬ New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery

George Fisher, the Judge John Crown Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, just released his new book Beware Euphoria: The Moral Roots and Racial Myths of America’s Drug War, with Oxford University Press. George has been teaching and writing in the realms of evidence, prosecution practice, and criminal legal history since 1995. He began practice as a prosecutor in Massachusetts and later taught at the law schools of Boston College, Harvard, and Yale. Beware Euphoria is the most recent among a slew of other books, articles, and essays that he’s published over the years, and perhaps the most contrarian. In this interview, George discusses his research methods and how he came to the conclusion that the history of America’s drug war, while racially motivated, was not meant to target minorities, but protect the morals and health of America’s white youth. Emily Dufton is the author of Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America (Basic Books, 2017). A drug historian and writer, her second book, on the development of the opioid addiction medication industry, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/drugs-addiction-and-recovery

  • More Episodes
  • New Books Network

Top Podcasts In Science

  • Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

The Most Important Writing Exercise I’ve Ever Assigned

An illustration of several houses. One person walks away from a house with a second person isolated in a window.

By Rachel Kadish

Ms. Kadish is the author of the novel “The Weight of Ink.”

“Write down a phrase you find abhorrent — something you yourself would never say.”

My students looked startled, but they cooperated. They knew I wouldn’t collect this exercise; what they wrote would be private unless they chose to share it. All that was required of them was participation.

In silence they jotted down a few words. So far, so good. We hadn’t yet reached the hard request: Spend 10 minutes writing a monologue in the first person that’s spoken by a fictitious character who makes the upsetting statement. This portion typically elicits nervous glances. When that happens, I remind students that their statement doesn’t represent them and that speaking as if they’re someone else is a basic skill of fiction writers. The troubling statement, I explain, must appear in the monologue, and it shouldn’t be minimized, nor should students feel the need to forgive or account for it. What’s required is simply that somewhere in the monologue there be an instant — even a fleeting phrase — in which we can feel empathy for the speaker. Perhaps she’s sick with worry over an ill grandchild. Perhaps he’s haunted by a love he let slip away. Perhaps she’s sleepless over how to keep her business afloat and her employees paid. Done right, the exercise delivers a one-two punch: repugnance for a behavior or worldview coupled with recognition of shared humanity.

For more than two decades, I’ve taught versions of this fiction-writing exercise. I’ve used it in universities, middle schools and private workshops, with 7-year-olds and 70-year-olds. But in recent years openness to this exercise and to the imaginative leap it’s designed to teach has shrunk to a pinprick. As our country’s public conversation has gotten angrier, I’ve noticed that students’ approach to the exercise has become more brittle, regardless of whether students lean right or left.

Each semester, I wonder whether the aperture through which we allow empathy has so drastically narrowed as to foreclose a full view of our fellow human beings. Maybe there are times so contentious or so painful that people simply withdraw to their own silos. I’ve certainly felt that inward pull myself. There are times when a leap into someone else’s perspective feels impossible.

But leaping is the job of the writer, and there’s no point it doing it halfway. Good fiction pulls off a magic trick of absurd power: It makes us care. Responding to the travails of invented characters — Ahab or Amaranta, Sethe or Stevens, Zooey or Zorba — we might tear up or laugh, or our hearts might pound. As readers, we become invested in these people, which is very different from agreeing with or even liking them. In the best literature, characters are so vivid, complicated, contradictory and even maddening that we’ll follow them far from our preconceptions; sometimes we don’t return.

Unflinching empathy, which is the muscle the lesson is designed to exercise, is a prerequisite for literature strong enough to wrestle with the real world. On the page it allows us to spot signs of humanity; off the page it can teach us to start a conversation with the strangest of strangers, to thrive alongside difference. It can even affect those life-or-death choices we make instinctively in a crisis. This kind of empathy has nothing to do with being nice, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Even within the safety of the page, it’s tempting to dodge empathy’s challenge, instead demonizing villains and idealizing heroes, but that’s when the needle on art’s moral compass goes inert. Then we’re navigating blind: confident that we know what the bad people look like and that they’re not us — and therefore we’re at no risk of error.

Our best writers, in contrast, portray humans in their full complexity. This is what Gish Jen is doing in the short story “Who’s Irish?” and Rohinton Mistry in the novel “A Fine Balance.” Line by line, these writers illuminate the inner worlds of characters who cause harm — which is not the same as forgiving them. No one would ever say that Toni Morrison forgives the character Cholly Breedlove, who rapes his daughter in “The Bluest Eye.” What Ms. Morrison accomplishes instead is the boldest act of moral and emotional understanding I’ve ever seen on the page.

In the classroom exercise, the upsetting phrases my students scribble might be personal (“You’ll never be a writer,” “You’re ugly”) or religious or political. Once a student wrote a phrase condemning abortion as another student across the table wrote a phrase defending it. Sometimes there are stereotypes, slurs — whatever the students choose to grapple with. Of course, it’s disturbing to step into the shoes of someone whose words or deeds repel us. Writing these monologues, my graduate students, who know what “first person” means, will dodge and write in third, with the distanced “he said” instead of “I said.”

But if they can withstand the challenges of first person, sometimes something happens. They emerge shaken and eager to expand on what they’ve written. I look up from tidying my notes to discover students lingering after dismissal with that alert expression that says the exercise made them feel something they needed to feel.

Over the years, as my students’ statements became more political and as jargon (“deplorables,” “snowflakes”) supplanted the language of personal experience, I adapted the exercise. Worrying that I’d been too sanguine about possible pitfalls, I made it entirely silent, so no student would have to hear another’s troubling statement or fear being judged for their own. Any students who wanted to share their monologues with me could stay after class rather than read to the group. Later, I added another caveat: If your troubling statement is so offensive, you can’t imagine the person who says it as a full human being, choose something less troubling. Next, I narrowed the parameters: No politics. The pandemic’s virtual classes made risk taking harder; I moved the exercise deeper into the semester so students would feel more at ease.

After one session, a student stayed behind in the virtual meeting room. She’d failed to include empathy in her monologue about a character whose politics she abhorred. Her omission bothered her. I was impressed by her honesty. She’d constructed a caricature and recognized it. Most of us don’t.

For years, I’ve quietly completed the exercise alongside my students. Some days nothing sparks. When it goes well, though, the experience is disquieting. The hard part, it turns out, isn’t the empathy itself but what follows: the annihilating notion that people whose fears or joys or humor I appreciate may themselves be indifferent to all my cherished conceptions of the world.

Then the 10-minute timer sounds, and I haul myself back to the business of the classroom — shaken by the vastness of the world but more curious about the people in it. I put my trust in that curiosity. What better choice does any of us have? And in the sanctuary of my classroom I keep trying, handing along what literature handed me: the small, sturdy magic trick any of us can work, as long as we’re willing to risk it.

Rachel Kadish is the author of the novel “The Weight of Ink.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , X and Threads .

IMAGES

  1. Oxford Book of Essays by John Gross

    oxford book of essays

  2. Oxford Book of Essays

    oxford book of essays

  3. The Oxford Book of Essays

    oxford book of essays

  4. The Oxford book of essays by Gross, John (9780199556557)

    oxford book of essays

  5. The Oxford Book of Essays by John Gross (1991, Hardcover) 9780192141859

    oxford book of essays

  6. Oxford book of english essays

    oxford book of essays

VIDEO

  1. How to Use Oxford Handbooks Online

  2. Oxford Book of American Essays by VARIOUS read by James E. Carson Part 2/3

  3. How to Use Oxford Scholarly Editions Online

  4. Oxford Handbooks Online: Scholarly Research Reviews

  5. Oxford Book of American Essays Part 1/2 Full Audiobook by Essays Audiobooks

  6. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online -- Explore old texts in new ways

COMMENTS

  1. The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose)

    The Oxford Book of Essays John Gross (Editor) 4.15 158 ratings16 reviews Now in a more readable format, this sweeping collection ranges from the early 1600s through the 1980s and includes 140 essays by 120 of the finest writers in the history of the English language.

  2. The Oxford book of essays : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming

    The Oxford book of essays Bookreader Item Preview ... This collection of 140 essays by 120 writers features classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, and recent examples Includes bibliographical references (pages xiv-xviii) Notes. obscured text on back cover.

  3. The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose)

    The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose) Paperback - May 16, 2002 by John Gross (Editor) 4.3 71 ratings See all formats and editions Now in a more readable format, this sweeping collection ranges from the early 1600s through the 1980s and includes 140 essays by 120 of the finest writers in the history of the English language.

  4. The Oxford book of essays : Gross, John J

    The Oxford book of essays by Gross, John J Publication date 1991 Topics English essays, American essays Publisher Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks Contributor Internet Archive Language English Includes bibliographical references (p. [xiv]-xviii) Access-restricted-item

  5. The Oxford Book of Essays

    The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, recent examples that...

  6. The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of... by Gross, John

    680 pages of great writing - and superb value. And don't leave it on your bookshelf gathering dust - pass it on to a friend! Buy The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse) by Gross, John (ISBN: 9780199556557) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

  7. The Oxford Book of Essays by Gross, John

    The Oxford Book of Essays by Gross, John Books › Literature & Fiction › Essays & Correspondence Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery Buy new: $34.92 List Price: $45.00 Details Save: $10.08 (22%)

  8. The Oxford Book of Essays Paperback

    The Oxford Book of Essays: Gross, John: 9780192829702: Amazon.com: Books Skip to main content $8.15 - $13.33 When Montaigne developed the essay in the sixteenth century, he could not have imagined the power and longevity of his creation.

  9. The Oxford Book of Essays

    Including book reviews and travel sketches, history lessons and meditations, reflections on art and on potato chips, these essays sample four centuries of eloquence and insight in a collection...

  10. The Oxford Book of Essays

    The Oxford Book of Essays John J. Gross Published 15 December 2008 Art The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument.

  11. The Oxford Book of Essays by John Gross

    9780199556557 Pub. Date: 12/15/2008 Publisher: Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Essays by John Gross Write a review Paperback Buy New $27.99 Buy Used $18.86 Overview The essay is one of the richest, most imaginative, and most eloquent literary form. This anthology contains some 140 essays by all the leading exponents of the genre.

  12. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Oxford Book of American Essays

    THE EPHEMERA: AN EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE TO MADAME BRILLON, OF PASSY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. YOU may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately spent that happy day in the delightful garden and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the company. We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose ...

  13. Oxford University Press :: The Oxford Book of Essays :: 9780199556557

    The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind ...

  14. The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse

    About this title About this edition The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch--though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays.

  15. The Oxford book of essays by John Gross

    Edited by ImportBot. import existing book. November 11, 2020. Edited by MARC Bot. import existing book. April 1, 2008. Created by an anonymous user. Imported from Scriblio MARC record . The Oxford book of essays by John Gross, 1991, Oxford University Press edition, in English.

  16. The Oxford Book of American Essays by W. C. Brownell et al

    Editor. Matthews, Brander, 1852-1929. Title. The Oxford Book of American Essays. Contents. Introduction -- The ephemera: an emblem of human life / Benjamin Franklin -- The whistle / Benjamin Franklin -- Dialogue between Franklin and the gout / Benjamin Franklin -- Consolation for the old bachelor / Francis Hopkinson -- John Bull / Washington ...

  17. Oxford Book of Essays

    The Oxford Book of Essays is a compilation of short literary prose studies edited by John Gross of pieces written in English stretching from Francis Bacon in 1625 to Clive James in 1980. He admits in his introduction that it's almost impossible to define the literary essay (as distinct from the academic essay).

  18. The Oxford book of essays /

    Description. This collection of 140 essays by 120 writers features classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, and recent examples. More Copies In Prospector. Title. Author. Pub. Date. Format. The Oxford book of essays / chosen and edited by John Gross.

  19. Audiobook: The Oxford book of essays by Gross John.

    Synopsis. The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its ...

  20. The Oxford Book of American Essays : Edward Sandford Martin : Free

    Book from Project Gutenberg: The Oxford Book of American Essays Introduction -- The ephemera: an emblem of human life / Benjamin Franklin -- The whistle / Benjamin Franklin -- Dialogue between Franklin and the gout / Benjamin Franklin -- Consolation for the old bachelor / Francis Hopkinson -- John Bull / Washington Irving -- The mutability of literature / Washington Irving -- Kean's acting ...

  21. The Oxford Book of Essays First Edition

    The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose) $6.88 Only 1 left in stock - order soon. Now in a more readable format, this sweeping collection ranges from the early 1600s through the 1980s and includes 140 essays by 120 of the finest writers in the history of the English language.

  22. Paperback

    The Oxford Book of Essays (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse) Paperback by John Gross (Author) 4.3 70 ratings See all formats and editions Hardcover $29.97 71 Used from $1.19 5 New from $12.78

  23. The Oxford Book of Essays used book by John Gross: 9780192141859

    Enjoy FREE standard shipping on book orders of $15 or more from Better World Books. Buy a used copy of The Oxford Book of Essays book by John Gross. When Montaigne developed the essay in the sixteenth century, he could not have imagined the power and longevity of his creation.

  24. ‎New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery: George Fisher, "Beware

    George Fisher, the Judge John Crown Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, just released his new book Beware Euphoria: The Moral Roots and Racial Myths of America's Drug War, with Oxford University Press. George has been teaching and writing in the realms of evidence, prosecution practice, and cri…

  25. Opinion

    Ms. Kadish is the author of the novel "The Weight of Ink." "Write down a phrase you find abhorrent — something you yourself would never say." My students looked startled, but they ...