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Essays and English Traits

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles William Eliot (Editor)

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510247,528 (3.61)2
Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume V features two collections from American poet and philosopher RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882): Essays-on such topics as "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance," "Friendship," "Heroism," and more-and English Traits, in which he examines the British character as gathered from his travels in England.… (more)
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I thought these essays were claptrap when I had to read some of them in school. Now forty years later my opinion is confirmed. One can see how appropriate is Mr. Emerson's best known quotation ("Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"). "English Traits" (one of the more readable of the pieces in this collection) is one of the most inconsistent works I've ever come across. But Emerson is not all harmlessly quaint. I don't see how anybody familiar with the history of the 20th century can read "Self Reliance", his most famous and once popular essay, without a shudder.
  cstebbins | Oct 2, 2018 |
Includes "The Over-Soul" (1841, written before Nietzsche was even born--1844).

"Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Always our being is descending into us from we know not whence." [133] "When I watch that flowing river...I see that I am a pensioner, not a cause but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water." [134] ( )
  keylawk | Apr 29, 2017 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ralph Waldo Emersonprimary authorall editionscalculated
Eliot, Charles WilliamEditormain authorall editionsconfirmed
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Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume V features two collections from American poet and philosopher RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882): Essays-on such topics as "The American Scholar," "Self-Reliance," "Friendship," "Heroism," and more-and English Traits, in which he examines the British character as gathered from his travels in England.

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