An essay is a literary work that is analytic,

interpretative, or critical in character, and it is

often much shorter and less systematic and
formal than a dissertation or thesis. It often
approaches the issue from a limited and
frequently personal perspective.

Some early treatises, such as those of Cicero on

the pleasantness of old age or the art of
"divination," Seneca on anger or clemency, and
Plutarch on the passing of oracles, foreshadow
the form and tone of the essay, but it was not
until the late 16th century that the French writer
Michel de Montaigne perfected the flexible,
deliberately nonchalant, and versatile form of the
essay. Employing the term essai to emphasize
that his compositions were attempts or
undertakings, a