Nonfiction: The Familiar Essay
The discovery of the essay…
Sir Francis Bacon is generally credited with introducing and popularizing the essay in the English-speaking world. Influenced by the French essays of Michel de Montaigne, who first used the term “essais” (or “attempts”) to describe his prose reflections on commonplace topics and occurrences, Bacon published Essays, Religious Meditations, Places of Persuasion and Dissuasion in 1597.
Understanding the familiar essay…
A familiar essay can be easily described as a merging of the expository essay and the true narrative essay. The familiar essay is written by the first person but does not tell a story based on plot like the true narrative. The writer of the familiar essay has an interest, if not passion, in her subject.
“Probably not. In short, familiar essays are somewhere between the personal and the critical essay. According to Anne Fadiman, in an interview from All Things Considered, the familiar essay is “autobiographical, but also about the world”. She also says, in an interview on powells.com, that “one of its hallmarks of that it is about the author, so it is a subset of the personal essay, but it is also about a subject”.
In the nineteenth century familiar essays were at their height of popularity as a culture of interested readers found the familiar essay entertaining and interesting. With the advancement of society and the reliance on television and computer, the familiar essay has lost its status as a source of entertainment.
“However, it was in the 19th century – a period of material well-being in England , when there was a leisure class who enjoyed literature, when an education was received by many among the masses – that the familiar essay fully came into its own. The familiar essayist, as Sister Mary Eleanore wrote (1923), ‘is a veritable Jaques upon a mossy bank, who, while he watches the world go jostling its way down the river of life, extracts from its seemingly confused and meaningless tumbling bits of loving wisdom and quaint chuckles of fun . . .” He soothes the pains of the world’s tired travel, and does so through his ability to be whimsical, grave, melancholy, through his love of living and sense of humor over “those ridiculous and pathetic incongruities which are such a necessary part of life.’”
The familiar essay reached its zenith with Charles Lamb . Though living a melancholy and often tragic life, Lamb created in his essays a narrator “in love with this green earth,”
– Dan Roche
Anne Fadiman revives the Familiar Essay…
I’ll admit that initially I was a bit thrown by the phrase “familiar essays” on the front of this book. I thought that maybe this was a collection of commonly told fables or something akin to that. I didn’t realize that the familiar essay is a type of essay. In my defense, they are not as common as they used to be. However, I would imagine that I have read some and didn’t even know it. Historically, these essays often had titles like “On Boating” or “On Politics Being a Masculine Arena.” They were meant to be informative, while at the same time highlighting pertinent personal experiences of the author.
Fadiman explains her devotion to the familiar form in the book’s lovely Preface: “Today’s readers encounter plenty of critical essays (more brain than heart) and plenty of personal – very personal – essays (more heart than brain), but not many familiar essays (equal measures of both).”
A typical Fadiman essay begins with an engaging personal anecdote before branching out into the history of the subject in question. As her extensive bibliography indicates, research aplenty goes into each piece. But it’s all so delightful, it’s like eating a meal that is both good for you and delicious.
How to write the familiar essay…I could just soon attempt to explain for you how to fly a kite, but begin with inspiration which serves as the wind of your discussion.
The Introduction: There is not prescribed set form for the familiar essay, although to begin with an engaging personal anecdote, which serves to introduce the point of your discussion, is effective. The writer will always benefit from providing an analogy or example to emphasize the opening anecdote. Like the expository essay, the introduction should conclude with a unifying statement that reveals the thesis statement. The language of the thesis does not have to be mechanical and straightforward, however, the declaring account should embrace the spirit of the discussion which follows in the body and conclusion.
The Body: Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, what follows is a combination of opinionated observations supported with facts, testimony or examples/analogies. The transition statement is often used instead of the conclusive statement in an expository essay because the familiar essay is a blend of personality and formality.
The Conclusion: Restate your thesis or the spirit of your thesis. From here, you benefit by fulfilling the point of your discussion—another analogy or excerpt from your tale, that serves to culminate your discussion is appropriate. Conclude with the lesson of life declaration of your essay.