Contemporary Literary Criticism | Hamilton, Ian - Bevis Hillier (review date 25 September 1999)

Bevis Hillier (review date 25 September 1999)

SOURCE: Hillier, Bevis. “Why Did He Leave Out E. M. Forster?” Spectator 283, no. 8929 (25 September 1999): 48-51.

[In the following review of The Penguin Book of Twentieth Century Essays, selected by Hamilton, Hillier explores varying definitions of the essay form, and questions Hamilton's choices for this anthology.]

I agreed, by telephone, to review [The Penguin Book of Twentieth Century Essays], and before it arrived by post I tried to work out a definition of ‘essay’. Yes, yes, I know it means a try. (If at first you don't succeed, essay, essay, essay again.) As practised by Montaigne and Bacon it meant a short article on a given subject, ‘Of Truth’, ‘Of Gardens’. But in the 20th century few writers have set themselves that sort of task, once they have escaped the school penance of ‘What I did in the holidays’ or ‘A day in the life of a coat-hanger’....

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