The Essay vs. the Chronicle

A few years ago, Harry Mount, the editor of Notting Hill Editions Journal in England, tried to define what an essay is: “Any shortish passage of non-fiction which makes a general argument.”

I don’t at all agree as to length being part of the definition. An essay does not cease to be an essay when it becomes a book (which, of course, does not constitute a literary genre,) just as a chronicle does not. Alain de Botton’s “The Art of Travel” and “The Architecture of Happiness” are definitely essays despite being also books.

As to an essay having to make a general argument, I suppose that is how it differs from the chronicle, which is more concerned with depiction and narrative than argument, though it can be as thought-filled as any essay.

But what Harry Mount had to say about the autobiographical essay applies also to the chronicle: “You could write 50,000 words about yourself, and it could be an essay in every regard. It sounds banal, but all that matters is quality of writing and thought.”

He then went on to list 10 exceptional essays. I found the list interesting because two of the essays were actually works of reportage, reminding me of how Joan Didion’s pieces are now called essays when they were originally magazine features and examples of the New Journalism.

Harry Mount justified it this way: “Brilliant reportage leaps its chains and becomes an essay.”

I think he was right in suspecting that reportage can leap out of its genre into another — but since a report usually has no general argument to make, and is more concerned with depiction and narrative, that other genre would not be the essay but the chronicle. The same applies to Didion’s pieces: if they are to be considered more than magazine features, then call them chronicles.

Originally published at modernchronicle.blogspot.com on October 29, 2018.