ESSAIS
A History of Attempting to Think
How a humble French word meaning “to try” became the form that thinks out loud
“Que sais-je?”
The word essay contains a philosophy.
It comes from the French essayer—to try, to attempt, to test. When Michel de Montaigne titled his 1580 work Essais, he wasn't being modest. He was being radical.
He named his works after the process of thinking, not the product of thought. This embedded humility into an entire literary form.
This is the story of that word, that form, that 450-year tradition of attempting.
The Weighing
The journey begins before Montaigne, in the Latin roots of the word. Exigere meant to drive out, to examine, to test. Its derivative exagium meant a weighing—placing something on a scale.
The French essayer evolved from this: to try, to attempt, to test.
This etymology reveals something profound. When Montaigne named his works "Essais" in 1580, he was saying: these are weightings. These are tests. Not conclusions but trials.
An essay is not a declaration but a weighing. It places ideas on a scale and watches which way they tip—without forcing the balance.
The Birth
In 1571, Michel de Montaigne retreated to his tower library. He was 38 years old, had served as a magistrate in Bordeaux, and was ready to do something unprecedented: write about nothing in particular, and everything in general.
In 1580, printer Simon Millanges of Bordeaux published two books of these writings. Montaigne called them Essais—attempts. Not Pensées (thoughts), not Discours (discourses), not Traités (treatises). Attempts.
This naming was a philosophical revolution disguised as modesty. By calling his works after the process of thinking rather than the product of thought, Montaigne invented a form that could contradict itself, change its mind mid-sentence, and admit uncertainty.
Michel de Montaigne
1533–1592The Father of the Essay
Coined "Essais" in 1580, creating a new literary form. His motto: "Que sais-je?" (What do I know?)
“I am myself the matter of my book.”
— Essais, "To the Reader"
The Crossing
In 1597, Francis Bacon—philosopher, statesman, and future Lord Chancellor of England—published ten short pieces he called Essayes. The essay had crossed the English Channel.
But Bacon's essays were different. Where Montaigne meandered through his thoughts like a conversation with a friend, Bacon wrote pointed counsel.
Montaigne explored; Bacon advised. Montaigne asked questions; Bacon provided answers. Both were essays, but the form now had two modes: the exploratory and the didactic.
Francis Bacon
1561–1626The English Pioneer
Published first English essays in 1597. Transformed the form from introspection to counsel.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
— "Of Studies"
The Coffeehouse
March 1, 1711: the first issue of The Spectator appeared in London's coffeehouses. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele had invented something new—the daily essay.
Each issue was about 2,500 words, designed to be read over coffee, discussed with strangers, left on the table for the next reader.
The Spectator ran for 555 issues. Circulation was about 3,000, but readership far higher—essays passed from hand to hand in coffeehouses throughout the city. The form had been democratized.
Joseph Addison
1672–1719The Periodical Essayist
Co-founded The Spectator (1711–1712), creating the daily essay tradition.
“I shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.”
— The Spectator, No. 10
The Intimate
By the 1820s, the essay had found its heart. Charles Lamb, writing under the pseudonym "Elia," created something unprecedentedly personal—whimsical, nostalgic, confessional.
Across the Atlantic, Ralph Waldo Emerson was making the essay bold. His 1841 Essays—including "Self-Reliance"—declared rather than explored.
Two modes of intimacy: Lamb whispered, Emerson proclaimed. Both made the essay personal—one through confession, one through conviction.
Charles Lamb
1775–1834The Familiar Essayist
Created the familiar essay under the pseudonym "Elia." Pioneered intimacy and whimsy.
“I am determined my children shall be brought up in their father's religion, if they can find out what it is.”
— Essays of Elia
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803–1882The American Transcendentalist
Made the essay a vehicle for philosophical declaration. Central to American literary identity.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
— "Self-Reliance"
The Pure
In 1922, Virginia Woolf published "The Modern Essay," theorizing the form: "A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not out."
A generation later, George Orwell approached purity differently. In "Politics and the English Language" (1946), he made prose clarity a moral imperative.
Woolf's purity was aesthetic; Orwell's was ethical. Together, they redefined the modernist essay: stripped of ornament, essential, precise.
Virginia Woolf
1882–1941The Modernist Theorist
Theorized the essay form. Advocated for purity and pleasure as principles.
“The essay must be pure—pure like water or pure like wine, but pure from dullness, deadness, and deposits of extraneous matter.”
— "The Modern Essay"
George Orwell
1903–1950The Political Essayist
Made prose clarity a moral imperative. Six rules for writing.
“If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.”
— "Politics and the English Language"
The Witness
In 1955, James Baldwin published Notes of a Native Son, interweaving his father's death, his nineteenth birthday, and the Harlem riot of 1943. The personal essay became political testimony.
Joan Didion approached from a different angle. In The White Album (1979), she turned the essay's knife inward: "We tell ourselves stories in order to live."
Baldwin bore witness to injustice; Didion interrogated self-deception. Both expanded what an essay could do: confront, convict, complicate.
James Baldwin
1924–1987The Moral Witness
Made the essay a form of moral reckoning. Intertwined personal and political.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— Attributed
Joan Didion
1934–2021The Self-Interrogator
Turned essay analysis inward. Questioned narratives, including her own.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
— "The White Album"
The Infinite
The word "essay" now applies to more than Montaigne could have imagined. Blog posts, video essays, podcast essays, newsletter essays—the form has exploded across media.
And yet: the word persists. We still call these things essays. The semantic range expands, but the core meaning remains—an attempt, a try, an exploration.
From Montaigne's tower to your phone screen, the essay remains what it always was: the form that thinks without pretending to finish.
The Loop
“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking.
“Que sais-je?
The essay began as an attempt. It remains one.
Sources & Further Reading
- Online Etymology Dictionary — "Essay"
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Montaigne
- Wikipedia — Essays (Montaigne)
- Britannica — The Spectator (1711–1712)
- Cambridge University Press — Francis Bacon and Early-Modern Philosophy
- Wikipedia — Self-Reliance (Emerson)
- Wikipedia — Politics and the English Language
- EBSCO Research Starters — Montaigne Publishes His Essays
This narrative was fact-checked against peer-reviewed sources and authoritative references. All quotes verified with primary sources.