By Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review, Dec. 28, 2012
In its quality of attention and faith in the salvific power of the right words in the right order, the essay resembles nothing so much as a secular prayer. That, at least, was the original point. The essay has proved wayward, which has been the great secret to its longevity.
Invented in France by Michel de Montaigne, the 16th century’s great oversharer; perfected in England by Samuel Johnson and William Hazlitt; the essay found America very agreeable: “The United States itself — and even its name, according to some sources — is partly the outcome of the essayistic brilliance of the radical English artisan Thomas Paine,” Christopher Hitchens, one of its finest modern practitioners, wrote. Its health, however, has never been guaranteed.
Virginia Woolf had to reassure the public in 1922: “Oh, yes dear reader: the essay is alive. There is no reason to despair,” even as journalists crowed over the death of “that lavender-scented little old lady of literature.” “Everybody is forever saying that the essay is dead,” John Leonard observed in 1982. “This is always said in essays.”
Parul Sehgal 
Your review in itself is a fantastic essay. The Old Masters line about Wood made me laugh. Thank you—I’ll now be reading these books.
Very much enjoyed. Felt as if you were channeling Wood in the Wood section (quoting a selection of typical sentences to reveal what happens at the level of sentence). Less convinced by your cavil that Wood fails to persuade.