Selected Essays

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Larzer Ziff (Editor)

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that an appreciation of its vast natural resources would become the foundation of American culture. His assertion that human thought and actions proceed from nature, was a radical departure from the traditional European emphasis on domesticating nature to suit human needs. His philosophy is rich in common natural scenes of daily life, and expresses the inherent harmony between man and nature. This collection brings together 15 of Emerson's most significant essays, including "Nature", "The American Scholar", "Self-reliance" and "The Transcendentalist", as well as his assessments of Montaigne, Napoleon and Thoreau.

Genres: Classics, Philosophy, Essays, Nonfiction, Nature, American, Poetry

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.

The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it again. Still a five star book. Wouldn't change a word of this review.

This is my rubber band book. The bands need changing over time. They harden and crack open. I find them pinged across the room. In their death throws, they try to grab a chair leg or other point of terra firma. And fail. They fall. I find them. Toss them and find another. The latest is the color of those centers in Oreos you lick as a child. It's new and looks fresh as cream. But, it will go the same the way as the others. Rubber bands have extinction built into them. Motorcycle helmets, too, if you didn't know and are ever tempted by one at a yard sale. But Emerson's essays stay good. Even better with time. Which is why I read and reread them until the pages fall from the spine and I need a rubber band to hold them together. If you're in a meditative mood or can't get to the bar where you would have talked with a friend in post work pre-pandemic days, open these essays with a pencil to tick the best bits and keep a rubber band handy (just in case).

"The poet knows that he speaks adequately then only when he speaks somewhat wildly . . . . not with intellect alone but with the intellect inebriated by nectar."

[Julio Pino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nietzsche once declared that he owed everything he knew and practiced as a writer to the essays of Emerson. There can be no higher praise.

[Jules]

Reading Emerson with my Unitarian book group is interesting. For them, he's not just an entry in the American literary canon; he might just hold the answers to some of life's questions. It's an unusual approach for me, but refreshing. Reminds me of my freshman year of college, when I read Plato and Dante and Machiavelli not to analyze and criticize, but for their potential truth value.

In the end, though, I remain deeply suspicious of the early Emerson, and particularly his belief in a universal transcendent. And as much as I admire nature, his use of it as a ready vocabulary chafes, and fails. But he's always a good read.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's fitting that I'm writing this review on February 14th, because I am in love with these essays (sorry, Maggie). I've often wondered why essayists don't seem to take on the big themes of life head on. You might get an essay about a visit to a childhood lake or an essay on why eating animals is wrong or an essay on a particular relationship, but I've rarely found in modern writing essays on Love or Self-Reliance (except for that one by Joan Didion which I love to death). The reason, it seems, is that you have to be Emerson (and Emerson in the 19th century) to dig into those huge questions without being lost in meaningless generalities. Emerson has his general statements ("I am part or particle of God," "But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future," etc) and his blanket commandments ("Always, always, always do what scares you."), but somehow they generally don't feel meaningless. He seems to have seen what I see in the world and by reading his work I see it more clearly. His style of diving deep into enormous topics seems to come out of his role as a preacher and public speaker. These essays were also composed as speeches which he would go around the country delivering. Essentially, he'd do it the way a band does. Spend some time in the studio producing new work and then tour the album.
Emerson seems to see the world as a very tightly balanced moral and physical system. For him, every virtue finds its rewards and every vice exacts its toll without fail. There is no person who gets anything other than exactly what he or she deserves. This is a place we differ, but that's half the fun.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is a classic…but goodness, gracious
this was a disappointment.
Written in another age…for a different reading public
…the book is hard to digest in 21st C.
I did learn: Does a Transcendentalist believe in God?
They believe in the idea of a personal knowledge of God,
…. no intermediary (church) was needed for spiritual insight.
So I guess my time was not completely wasted….
Not conforming with the general opinion of this book…
(…Emerson would be so proud of me…)
and giving this book 2 stars.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the great tragedies of my grad school experience was that I read so many excellent books so quickly that I can't remember much of them except that they were good. Someone with my handwriting has written thoughtful comments all over the margins of this book, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Emerson except perhaps that beauty and nature are good, and one should be true to oneself. Did I get that right, Mr. Emerson?

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago when barely a teenager. Recently I noticed it on my mother's bookshelf and decided to refresh my memory by reading it again. I was surprised to realize these essays probably helped to shape my thinking and beliefs. That is not a bad thing.

[Mike Futcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close." (pg. 83)

Dense and abstract, Ralph Waldo Emerson's Selected Essays often become something of a trial for the modern reader. Part essayist and part philosopher, the delivery of his sermons on nature, fate, history, art and academia require endurance, and while this is in part a mark against the modern reader, used to shorter and more manageable chucks of information delivery, it also speaks to the lofty and (in the best possible sense) indulgent nature of Emerson's prose. The fact that many of these essays were in fact (or were at first) lectures, helps mitigate against this, as Emerson's conversational tone ensures the reader doesn't get too bogged down, but the book does require fortitude. While by no means stale, the work of Emerson is at least possessing of a hard crust.

Once that crust is broken through, the ideas inside are nourishing. Oliver Wendell Holmes, quoted in the introduction to my Penguin Classics edition, named Emerson's essays as the United States' "intellectual declaration of independence" (pg. 16), the moment when it no longer sought to borrow so heavily from its European cultural inheritance but looked inward and tackled its own being on its own terms. Emerson dwells at that nexus of Old World and New that has always made America so fascinating and conflicted, and his vibrant advocacy and discussion of individualism and Man using his conscious will to align with the vast continental landscape have echoed in the American self-image ever since.

For all his dated prosing, Emerson can really deliver a ringing line when he wants to, and 'Man the Reformer' in particular speaks to our own time, his warning of our moral dependency on flawed and compromised articles long unheeded. But above all, the fundamental influence of Emerson's ideas on American letters makes him an essential read for anyone serious about appreciating the country's literary and intellectual development. The most famous and important of the man's essays are collected here in Selected Essays, and the book is a good choice if you wish to pay Emerson his dues.

[Heather Linchenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was about 25 years of age, there was a man I admired greatly and wanted so much to be like. He was unlike anyone I had ever known, with an insatiable love of learning and an ever-ready readiness for discourse. Books were everywhere in his home, including a blanket of them on the floor around his living room table! I wanted to follow in his footsteps so asked of all books, where should I begin? He thought a moment and determined it was this book, Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. So this is where my journey into the world of the minds of great men and women (by way of books) began.

I didn't read every word of this book. Usually with heavy books like this, it's good to simultaneously read something lighter and take the one that demands more thought in small doses. But one of my favorite essays was the one on Nature. Truly life-changing. The truth gained from this is why you'll hear me almost unable to speak without the use of metaphor. ;)

[Caomhghain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Compared to Montaigne Emerson fails. Possibly becausae they are lectures. His language has a tendency to be vapid, full of rhodomontade and rhetorical flourishes which don't necessarily mean a lot. His 'philosophy' is all too often just silly. He talks vaguely of 'poetry' for instance, but this seems to mean little more than 'high' feelings when you, say, see a sunset. He obsesses over special men (yes it is always men) and special races. I agree that this reflects his time but he never rises above it. His ideas on self reliance and the like just reflect a push ahead against everyone else. As I said, compared to a rich mind like Montaigne's this is trivial stuff.

[Joe Sweeney]

His freewheeling passion makes it impossible to follow him through all his ideas in a single reading—in one sitting you will observe an undercurrent of emotion that elevates certain passages above others that will thus seem superfluous in a given essay; at another sitting what seemed superfluous will become central to the rhetoric, and what was essential before will pale—but the flaw is admirable. When at his best there are very few other writers I can read with such a simple and overwhelming gratitude. Favorites in this collection: “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” “History,” “The Over-Soul,” “The Transcendentalist,” “Montaigne.”

[Pol · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Self Reliance', 'Divinity School Address', and 'The Over-Soul'.
I can't say Emerson's essays endear him to me at all. His system of thought is hopelessly naïf, and his aphoristic style is a double edged sword (in a way) – it makes for elegant, declamatory prose, but it also leads to misinterpretation of the sort that Captain Ahab uses to justify a monomaniacal pursuit. And more relevant to our modern times, people justify their egomania with out-of-context pithy little statements.

[Emi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides 5 of the 6 essays and a lecture included in the most widely read Self-Reliance and Other Essays, the volume also contains several more lectures and 7 additional essays ... but my favorites still remain in the former compilation.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Couldn't get into it. Disagreed with many statements & the overarching philosophy right off the bat, in the intro. I skimmed some of the essays but I'll skip reading the entire thing.

DNF Aug 2022

[Hardy Bazyani · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books you will ever read.

[Mat Rueter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every true man or woman requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish their design.

[Erin Matson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find yourself living among cornfields and early fall snow during a mounting pandemic and potential civil war, these essays provide perspective.

[Octoberbear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emerson is one of the very first American thinkers who I read during teenage years. I was quite touched by his essays on self-reliance.

[Marina Morais · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't. Old privileged white American philosophers are just not for me. The transcendentalism I can relate to - but the individualism, the nationalism and the almost naïve relationship with capitalism is just too much.

"The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home...". "Travelling is a fool's paradise". I understand where this comes from considering his current of thinking, but definitely not a match to the way I see the world. And maybe a bit dated, sure, his own philosophy might be different had he lived in the 21st century.

The combination between that and the individualism he preaches is also a deadly one in today's world. The era of life coaches and entrepreneurs, capitalism at its peak, the self before the community, the arrogance of finding oneself always right. It's one thing to encourage people to have their own mind instead of simply following others blindly, but a developed mind comes from a lot of listening, and not "trusting your gut because you're always right". The idea that "every great man is unique" is simply not true. Every person is a combination of many influences, freshness is not the same as new.

Anyway, like I said, it's good to be exposed to ideas you don't agree to, so there you go.

[Davis Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sheer richness of Emerson's thought is often underrated. It is intensely referential; when I uncheerfully skimmed my way through "Self-Reliance" in ninth grade, I laughed at the apparently blatantly amoral, relativistic platitudes and the needlessly dense style. Since then, having studied (at a very introductory level) Plato, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Western medieval and Eastern dharmic mysticism, I now greatly admire the depth of tradition from which Emerson draws in crafting his sui generis milieu. In many ways he was no original at all but a prophet and assimilator of his cultural climate in ways that extend much further than the American spirit of which he is virtually the prime craftsman, Whitman the bard and Thoreau the propagandist. It's impossible to discern consistency among the particulars of Emerson's ideas, woven so beautifully into his exquisite pulpit rhetoric: and that's precisely the point. Reading these things is one of the great stimulating experiences in all literature; it's like basking in a sauna of language. That being said, after immersing myself in seven of them, I don't feel like I want to read him again for a year. There does come a point where all the paradoxes, all the aphorisms, all the iconoclasms become exasperating and has us wondering whether Emerson is indulging in purely literary invention rather than really trying to elaborate a philosophy.

And indeed, that is the only way I can read him without extreme frustration. You do really have to read him with all his influences in mind because otherwise he doesn't make anything close to a lick of sense. Though I don't buy at all what he's selling, no one could deny him his eminence—he is a truly great thinker and writer in the imaginative rather than philosophical tradition. His thought is, paradoxically, far too challenging and extravagant for realistic adoption as well as infinitely tempting. This isn't far at all from the framework of America itself, which has led to its becoming the dominant insignia of our contemporary nation. But man, if you want to see how mighty and moving literary rhetoric can be, choose a bright spring day and settle in with "Nature," "Circles," "Experience," or "Self-Reliance." I don't think you'll regret it. I have to admit that 19th century American stuff is my main area of literary indulgence, and a major period of fascination for me. A lot of it may not actually be that substantial, but the way they use words is just jaw-dropping. Only this country could have produced these guys.

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the fathers of the American spirit, not crafting its bill of rights or structure of government, but in defining individuality, pragmatism and spirituality for a new country built on people escaping the old. The seminal essay, "On Self-Reliance," is worth the price of this book alone, as it echoes everything our mothers told us as kids - but the rub is, this is where they got it. It is not the hardest-edged philosophy, Hell, anyone can read this and make sense of it, but its quality is irrefutable. Thank goodness, though, essays of lesser gravity are included, like the amusing "Circles," in which Emerson explores the curious frequency of circles in our world, from planets to cells. These are the thoughts of a great thinker, put as plainly and beautifully as he could, doing his best to convince you of his positions, while simultaneously pushing you to think for yourself.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

e-book/project gutenberg: text is from the 1907edition by Charles E. Merrill Co, New York, ed. by Edna H.L. Turpin. It's a textbook with 275 pages and includes a variety of essays and some biographical/historical context and information:
- Life of Emerson
- Critical opinions
- Chronological list of principal works
- "The American Scholar"
- "Compensation"
- "Self Reliance"
- "Friendship"
- "Heroism"
- "Manners"
- "Gifts"
- "Nature"
- "Shakespeare: or the Poet"
- "Prudence"
- "Circles"

I enjoyed this a lot, much more than I thought I would. I had downloaded it primarily for the Shakespeare article, but all of them were interesting. Apart from the Shakespeare article, I found Nature, Gifts and Manners most inspiring and thought-provoking.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emerson's more popular essays are rather astounding. I think he is one of those writers whose popular work really is his goodwork--the less popular stuff comes off as didactic and repetitive. My favorites: "John Brown," "Self-Relaince," "American Scholar," and "The Poet." "The Poet" in particular is interesting in how Emerson equates the figure of the poet to "beauty" and "naming" and also speaks of the poet as having "godlike" qualities. But, Emerson quotes his own poetry three times in this essay...

[Bob Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just lovely.

[Armando · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always referring back to these wonderful essays time and time again. Self Reliance is still one of my favorites!

[Shelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Emerson is one of my favorite authors, and has been since the early 1980s. His style is direct and enlightening, and you'll get a great view of religion in New England in the early 1800s.

[Ima.lotus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book which makes you need a cup of coffee and a second reading.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, essential American prose. Emerson holds such strong opinions about everything, and he was probably a real pain in person, but he sure can write a compelling essay.

[Shelby M. (Read and Find Out) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars overall.

Self-Reliance: 5 stars
Compensation: 4 stars
Love: 1 star
Friendship: 3 stars
Nature: 4 stars