| How this book was made | |
| A note to teachers | |
| A word to students | |
| Introduction | |
| The essay defined | |
| The essay further befined | |
| Characteristics of the essay | |
| The essay resembles conversation | |
| The subject matter of the essay | |
| History of the essay | |
| Relaltion of the essay to other literary forms | |
| Types of essays | |
| An apology for idlers - Robert Louis Stevenson | 3 |
| Aes triplex - Robert Louis Stevenson | 15 |
| Traits of Indian character - Washington Irving | 33 |
| A dissertation uppon roast pig - Charles Lamb | 46 |
| Saint Joan of arc - Mark Twain | 56 |
| On unanswering letters - Christopher Morley | 68 |
| What men live by - Christopher Morley | 77 |
| On doors - Christopher Morley | 77 |
| A kitten - Agnes Repplier | 80 |
| Oxford as I see it - Stephen Leacock | 91 |
| A, B, and C - The human element in mathematics - Stephen Leacok | 103 |
| The new freedom - Woodrow Wilson | 109 |
| Every man's natural desire to be somebody else - Samuel MacChord Crothers | 120 |
| Independence - Rudyard Kipling | 133 |
| The magic ring - Kenneth Grahame | 145 |
| Boating - Oliver Wendell Holmes | 158 |
| American and brition - John Galsworthy | 166 |
| My silent servants - John Kendrick Bangs | 179 |
| Where I lived and what I lived for - Henry David Thoreau | 189 |
| The art of procuring pleasant dreams - Benjamin Franklin | 206 |
| Mary White - William Allen White | 213 |
| Self-reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson | 220 |
| The Great American Game - William Lyon Phelps | 233 |
| The mississippi - Lafcadio Hearn | 243 |
| New orleans - Lafcadio Hearn | 247 |
| The romantic in the rain - G. K. Chesterton | 251 |
| On Running after one's hat - G. K. Chesterton | 255 |
| Transleting literature into life - Arnold Bennett | 260 |
| Possessions- E. V. Lucas | 266 |
| Telephonics - E. V. Lucas | 270 |
| Landfalls and departures - Joseph Conrad | 281 |
| Of riches - Francis Bacon | 292 |
| Of studies - Francis Bacon | 298 |
| Of friendship - Francis bacon | 300 |
| Of truth - Francis Bacon | 307 |
| The fifty-first dragon - Heywood Broun | 310 |
| I entertain an agent unawares - David Grayson | 321 |
| On marking camp - Stewart Edward White | 331 |
| On carrying a cane - Robert Cortes Holliday | 343 |
| To be read only by serious stupid persons - Charles S. Brooks | 350 |
| The death of an old dog - William Henry Hudson | 360 |
| Three days to see - Helen Adams Keller | 368 |
| Romance - Simeon Strunsky | 382 |
| My mother - Lizette Woodworth Reese | 388 |
| The jungle sluggard - William Beebe | 397 |
| Epigrams - Jonathan Swift | 412 |
| I get a colt to break in - Lincoln Steffens | 418 |
| On war - George Santayana | 429 |
| Column left - Stuart Chase | 433 |
| Dwight W. Morrow - Walter Lippmann | 444 |
| Books of essays for wider reading | 450 |
| Acknowledgments | |
Folytatás Microsoft-tal