Top Thirty Best Literary Essays List | Generated by AI
Question: What are the top 30 best literary essays or long-form essays?
Answer:
There is no single universally agreed-upon list of the “top 30” best literary essays or long-form pieces, as rankings are highly subjective and vary by source, era, and criteria (classic vs. modern, personal vs. critical, etc.). However, based on aggregated literary lists, anthologies, critic picks, and reader consensus from sources like meta-lists, The New Yorker, Literary Hub, and essay compilations, here is a synthesized selection of 30 highly regarded literary essays and long-form pieces. These span classics to more contemporary works and are frequently cited as exemplary in the genre.
I’ve prioritized individual essays (or notable standalone pieces from collections) that appear repeatedly across “best of” rankings.
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Michel de Montaigne – “Of Cannibals” (1580) or “On Some Verses of Virgil” (often cited as foundational to the modern essay form).
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Francis Bacon – “Of Studies” (1597).
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John Milton – “Areopagitica” (1644) – A landmark defense of free speech.
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William Hazlitt – “On Going a Journey” (1822).
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Charles Lamb – “The Superannuated Man” (1823).
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Henry David Thoreau – “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
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Henry David Thoreau – “Walking” (1862).
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Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Self-Reliance” (1841).
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Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own” (1929) – Often treated as a long essay.
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George Orwell – “Politics and the English Language” (1946).
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George Orwell – “Shooting an Elephant” (1936).
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Susan Sontag – “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964).
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Joan Didion – “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” (title essay, 1967).
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Joan Didion – “On Keeping a Notebook” (1968).
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James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” (1955).
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James Baldwin – “The Fire Next Time” (1963) – Essay-length sections.
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Annie Dillard – “Total Eclipse” (1982).
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David Foster Wallace – “Consider the Lobster” (2004).
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David Foster Wallace – “This Is Water” (2005 commencement address, essay-like).
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Eula Biss – “On Immunity” (excerpts or title essay from collection).
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John Jeremiah Sullivan – Various long-form pieces (e.g., from Pulphead).
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Zadie Smith – Essays from Feel Free or “Joy”.
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Christopher Hitchens – “Why Women Aren’t Funny” or pieces on free speech.
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Edward Hoagland – Essays from Sex and the River Styx.
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Valeria Luiselli – “Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions” (2017).
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Roxane Gay – Pieces from Bad Feminist or Hunger.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates – “The Case for Reparations” (2014, The Atlantic – long-form).
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Leslie Jamison – “The Empathy Exams” (title essay).
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John McPhee – “The Search for Marvin Gardens” or Atchafalaya pieces.
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Rebecca Solnit – “Men Explain Things to Me” (title essay, 2008).
For modern long-form journalism blended with literary style, sites like Longform.org, Aeon.co, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker frequently publish standout pieces (e.g., “The Really Big One” by Kathryn Schulz or historical New Yorker classics).
If you’re looking for classics, start with Montaigne, Orwell, Didion, and Baldwin. For contemporary, explore Wallace, Biss, Gay, and long-form from the outlets above.
References:
- Best Essays of All Time – Ranked (meta-list)
- 40 Best Essays of All Time (With Links)
- The Top 10 Essays Since 1950
- The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade (Literary Hub)
- The 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time