A review of Kate Holden’s The Ruin of Magic (The Saturday Paper)

The best essayists always show their working. From Michel de Montaigne, who originated the form, to William Hazlitt, Virginia Woolf and Joan Didion, their aim is not to storm the citadels of absolute truth with razor-sharp logic but rather to send their full humanity out into the world in the hope of new insights – to assay a topic, not to conquer it. (Both “essay” and “assay” derive from essai, a Middle French word meaning “attempt” or “try”.) Yes, there are essayists who dress for war, who wear their learning like a suit of armour. But the finest practitioners favour lighter garb, the better to perform a sharp turn when the mood takes them – to disappear down a muddy track, to explore that wood or inspect that castle. They are omnivorous, distractable, determinedly amateurish. They are curious about curiosity. [More here.]