Essays in English

Ralph Waldo Emerson

originalC2year1841genrePhilosophyvibeUpliftingIdentityFreedomaudioUS

A set of 19th-century essays on how to think for yourself, written as arguments, not stories. Self-Reliance is the best-known one.

The book is a series of separate essays, so there is no beginning or end to follow. Each one starts from a single idea and moves forward through examples, sayings and short, strong claims. The paragraphs are dense, and many sentences stand on their own as quotations. Emerson often uses a general "man" or "the soul" instead of a named person, and often returns to the same point from a new angle. The language is formal, with long sentences, abstract nouns and some older word forms.

What kind of book“Essays” is

Versions of “Essays” in English: C2

Same book, adapted to a level you can read without stopping

levelA1–A2B1–B2C1–C2pagesaudiobook

Vocabulary by level

A1 61%
A2 16%
B1 9%
B2 6%
not in dictionary 4%

A sample from “Essays” in English

One passage, the way each version writes it.

Tap any word — we will show the translation

Original · C2244 words

There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.

Of the works of this mind history is the record. Its genius is illustrated by the entire series of days. Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history. Without hurry, without rest, the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty, every thought, every emotion, which belongs to it, in appropriate events. But the thought is always prior to the fact; all the facts of history preexist in the mind as laws. Each law in turn is made by circumstances predominant, and the limits of nature give power to but one at a time. A man is the whole encyclopaedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man. Epoch after epoch, camp, kingdom, empire, republic, democracy, are merely the application of his manifold spirit to the manifold world.

The same passage at different levelsContinue in the reader

The original language of “Essays” and what it gives you

How hard the language is C2

This is the hardest text in our catalogue. The average sentence is 21.6 words, the longest of the books on this list, and only 77% of the words fall in the A1–A2 bands (61% + 16%). 7% of the words lie beyond the 5000 most frequent, and another 4% are outside the dictionary, mostly archaic forms and coined or capitalised concepts. We estimate the original at C1. There is no adaptation yet, so you read the original text.

What this means in practice: Read it when you want the original and have patience: the vocabulary is mostly common, but the sentences ask for slow reading.

What to be ready for

Abstract nouns. Words such as "nature", "genius", "virtue" and "conformity" carry the argument and are often used in a broad sense that differs from everyday English.

Aphorisms. Many sentences are short, general statements that can be read as quotations, followed by long sentences that explain them.

Older forms. The English is from the mid-1800s, so you will meet older words, long periodic sentences and forms such as "thyself" or "whoso".

Capitalised ideas. Key concepts are written as if they were names, which marks them as ideas to keep track of.

How to read it and not quit

Read a sentence twice: first find the main verb and subject, then add the clauses between them.
Do not translate every abstract noun word for word; many have a narrower meaning here than in a dictionary, so read the next sentence for the definition.
Notice "one" and "man" used as general pronouns for people in general, a pattern that is rare in modern speech.
Read one essay at a time, and underline the sentence that states the main claim; the rest of the paragraph is usually its proof.

Contents of “Essays” · 48 chapters

Chapter 1page 1
Chapter 2page 15
Chapter 3page 29
Chapter 4page 30
Chapter 5page 45
Chapter 6page 58

All 48 chapters

Chapter 7page 67
Chapter 8page 81
Chapter 9page 95
Chapter 10page 108
Chapter 11page 122
Chapter 12page 123
Chapter 13page 138
Chapter 14page 139
Chapter 15page 153
Chapter 16page 161
Chapter 17page 175
Chapter 18page 177
Chapter 19page 191
Chapter 20page 194
Chapter 21page 209
Chapter 22page 219
Chapter 23page 233
Chapter 24page 236
Chapter 25page 250
Chapter 26page 254
Chapter 27page 267
Chapter 28page 269
Chapter 29page 282
Chapter 30page 296
Chapter 31page 301
Chapter 32page 315
Chapter 33page 328
Chapter 34page 334
Chapter 35page 348
Chapter 36page 356
Chapter 37page 370
Chapter 38page 385
Chapter 39page 385
Chapter 40page 391
Chapter 41page 403
Chapter 42page 413
Chapter 43page 427
Chapter 44page 432
Chapter 45page 446
Chapter 46page 451
Chapter 47page 465
Chapter 48page 479

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The story of “Essays”

1841
Essays: First Series published
The first collection of twelve essays, including "Self-Reliance", "Compensation", "The Over-Soul" and "Circles", appeared in Boston in 1841.
1841
English edition through Carlyle
Emerson's friend Thomas Carlyle helped bring out a London edition the same year, which gave Emerson a British readership.
1844
Essays: Second Series
A second volume followed in 1844, with essays such as "The Poet" and "Experience", and the two volumes are now often read as one body of work.
Nietzsche and later readers
Nietzsche read Emerson as a young man and went back to him throughout his life, one example of the essays' reach into European thought.

In culture “Essays”

6 adaptations and mentions, 1841–1841

1841
In the language "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"
The line from "Self-Reliance" is quoted to defend changing one's mind, usually without its qualifier "foolish".
1841
In the language "Trust thyself"
Emerson's call to trust one's own judgement made "self-reliance" a core word in American ideas of individualism.
1841
In the language "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man"
The line is quoted for the idea that organisations take on the character of their founders.
1841
In the language "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist"
The sentence from "Self-Reliance" is a frequent epigraph for refusing social pressure.
1841
In the language "Around every circle another can be drawn"
The line from "Circles" is cited for the idea that every limit is provisional and can be passed.
Music Ives's Concord Sonata
Charles Ives's piano sonata on the Concord thinkers, completed in the 1910s, devotes its first movement to Emerson.

Questions and answers about “Essays” in English

What is Self-Reliance about?

Self-Reliance argues that you should trust your own judgment rather than follow the crowd or the habits of your society. Emerson says that real growth starts when you stop copying others and act on what you actually think.

Is "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" really in the book?

Yes, it appears in Self-Reliance, but the line is often cut short. The full sentence says that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, so Emerson is attacking pointless consistency, not consistency in general.

Which Emerson essay should I read first?

Start with Self-Reliance, since it is the best known and its main idea is stated early. Because the essays are independent, you can read the rest in any order and skip those that do not interest you.

Do I need to read the essays in order?

No, each essay stands alone. Reading them in a different order will not hurt you, and the shorter ones are a good way to get used to Emerson's style.

What is transcendentalism, and is it in this book?

Transcendentalism was a 19th-century American movement that valued intuition, nature and the individual over tradition and institutions. Emerson was one of its leading voices, so the ideas behind it run through these essays, though he does not stop to define the word.

Is Emerson hard to read in English?

Yes, he is among the harder authors for learners. The words are mostly familiar, but the ideas are abstract and the sentences are long, so you need to read slowly and sometimes reread.

Why do people say Emerson contradicts himself?

He often states a claim strongly and then pushes against it in the next paragraph. He did not mind this, and in Self-Reliance he says plainly that he does not want to be consistent for its own sake.

Is this a good book for IELTS or advanced exam practice?

It is useful for reading practice because it trains you to follow abstract, argumentative prose. It is not an exam course, and the old-fashioned forms mean it will not match the style of every test.

Are the essays still relevant today?

Many readers still find them relevant because they ask questions people keep asking: how much to follow others, and how to live by your own judgment. They are also the source of many phrases used in English.

What does Emerson mean by the Over-Soul?

He means a shared spirit that connects all people and things, which he suggests each person can reach through their own intuition. The essay on it is among the more abstract ones, so it is not the place to start.

In brief about “Essays”

17 fields of imprint data and measured text characteristics. All of it checkable.

Original title: Essays
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
First published: 1841
Original language: English
Genre: Philosophy · Essays
Mood: Uplifting
Themes: Identity · Freedom · Society · Nature
Setting: New England, United States; Emerson wrote and lectured in and around Concord, Massachusetts · The 1840s, mid-19th-century America
Distinct words: 11,503

Words per sentence: 22 words
Level of the original: C2
Versions: C2
Length of the original: 48 ch. · 131,675 words
Reading time: ~12 h 10 min
Source text: Standard Ebooks
Rights: CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
Download: EPUB