The English Essay and Essayists (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By employing chapters focusing on individual essayists, Walker tells the history of the English essay in its entirety, while staying detailed. Among the chapters of this 1915 volume are “Anticipations of the Essay,” “The Aphoristic Essayists,” and “The Historian-Essayists.” Essayists treated include Addison, Arnold, Carlyle, Goldsmith, and Hazlitt.