Francis Bacon Essays

Although his Essays —as all his other books and articles— were written in Latin, one fine translation into English remains dominant today. Yet, the translation includes archaisms: thous, thees, doths, plus intractable syntax and punctuation, causing readers to abandon the book after laboring through two or three pages. A pity, indeed! Imagine going through life ignoring this nugget of wisdom: There is no excellent beauty that has not some strangeness in the proportion. This adage seems to have influenced many a writer, to include Edgar Allan Poe, Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, and many others.
Our translation renders Bacon’s Essays into contemporary American English, making them easy to grasp, while preserving the author’s style.