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Essays: First Series

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Essays: First Series is a series of essays written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1841, concerning transcendentalism.

Essays

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The book contains:

  1. "History"
  2. "Self-Reliance"
  3. "Compensation"
  4. "Spiritual Laws"
  5. "Love"
  6. "Friendship"
  7. "Prudence"
  8. "Heroism"
  9. "The Over-Soul"
  10. "Circles"
  11. "Intellect"
  12. "Art"

Reception

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Many noted the influence of Thomas Carlyle. An anonymous English reviewer voiced the mainstream view when he wrote that the author of the book "out-Carlyles Carlyle himself," "imitat[ing] his inflations, his verbiage, his Germanico-Kantian abstractions, his metaphysics and mysticism."[1] Jane Welsh Carlyle agreed, giving her impression in a letter to John Sterling: "I find him getting affected, stilted, mystical, and in short 'a considerable of a bore' A bad immitation [sic] of Carlyle's most Carlylish translations of Goethes [sic] most Goetheish passages!"[2] For his part, Sterling described them to William Coningham as "the only book of any pith and significance that has dawned here lately . . . which at a glance, seem far ahead in compass and brilliancy of almost everything England has of late years (generations) produced".[3]

Musical Setting

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Three fragments from the essay "Spiritual Laws" form the backbone of composer Kaija Saariaho's True Fire for baritone and orchestra (2014), a piece of music that collages texts from various sources. The piece's title is taken from the essay's final sentence, that concludes also the setting: "We know the authentic effects of the true fire through every one of its million disguises."[4]

See also

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Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References

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  1. ^ Myerson, Joel, ed. (1992). "Emerson's Essays". Emerson and Thoreau: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 95.
  2. ^ "JWC TO JOHN STERLING, 29 April 1841". The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. Vol. 13. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 122.
  3. ^ "20 June 1841". Sterling's Letters to Coningham. 1872. p. 22.
  4. ^ "True Fire | Kaija Saariaho". www.wisemusicclassical.com. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
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