For more than four hundred years, the personalessay has been one of the richest and most vibrantof all literary forms.
Distinguished from thedetached formal essay by its friendly, conversationaltone, its loose structure, and its drive towardcandor and self-disclosure, the Personal essayseizes on the minutiae of daily life-vanities, fashions, foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love anddisappointment, the pleasures of solitude, reading, taking a walk -- to offer insight into thehuman condition a.
For more than four hundred years, the personalessay has been one of the richest and most vibrantof all literary forms