Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- 10 Essayistic Personae and Personhood
- 11 Clubs and Coffeehouses: Sociability and the Essay
- 12 Loose Sallies of the Mind: Distraction and the Essay
- 13 The Essay and the Rise of the Novel
- 14 The Periodical Essay and the Rise of Literary Professionalism
- 15 On Books: The Bibliographical Essay
- 16 Satire and the Essay
- 17 Food and the Essay
- 18 Forms of Thought: Dreams, Reverie, and the Essay
- 19 The Urban Familiar Essay of the Romantic Era
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - The Periodical Essay and the Rise of Literary Professionalism
from Part II - The Great Age of the British Essay
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2024
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- The Cambridge History of the British Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to a History in the Manner of an Essay
- Part I Forming the British Essay
- Part II The Great Age of the British Essay
- 10 Essayistic Personae and Personhood
- 11 Clubs and Coffeehouses: Sociability and the Essay
- 12 Loose Sallies of the Mind: Distraction and the Essay
- 13 The Essay and the Rise of the Novel
- 14 The Periodical Essay and the Rise of Literary Professionalism
- 15 On Books: The Bibliographical Essay
- 16 Satire and the Essay
- 17 Food and the Essay
- 18 Forms of Thought: Dreams, Reverie, and the Essay
- 19 The Urban Familiar Essay of the Romantic Era
- Part III Assaying Culture, Education, Reform
- Part IV Fractured Selves, Fragmented Worlds
- Part V The Essay and the Essayistic Today
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The extraordinary popularity of essays amongst British readers in the eighteenth century coincided with the rise of the idea of the professional author – an historical convergence that reflects both the popularity of the genre with writers of the age and the prominence of the essay as a discursive space in which the idea of literary professionalism could be imagined. Throughout the century, essay writers repeatedly emphasised not just the spirit of polite sociability evoked by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in The Spectator, but more self-ironically, the ways that their digressive and miscellaneous style and everyday focus resonated with the pressures of commercial modernity. In doing so, they articulated a version of literary professionalism that grounded its value in precisely the sorts of apparent limitations that authors were embracing as a basis of the essay genre.
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- The Cambridge History of the British Essay , pp. 199 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024