The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) is a collection of essays written by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. The essays were originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1857 and 1858 before being collected in book form. The author had written two essays with the same name which were published in the earlier The New-England Magazine in November 1831 and February 1832, which are alluded to in a mention of an "interruption" at the start of the first essay.
Author
Overview[edit]
The essays take the form of a chiefly one-sided dialogue between the unnamed Author and the other residents of a New England boarding house who are known only by their profession, location at the table, or other defining characteristics. The topics discussed range from an essay on the unexpected benefits of old age to the finest place to site a dwelling to comments on the nature of conversation itself. The tone of the book is distinctly Yankee and takes a seriocomic approach to the subject matter.
Each essay typically ends with a poem on the theme of the essay. There are also poems ostensibly written by the fictional disputants scattered throughout.
Critical response[edit]
Holmes's essays were well received by critics and readers alike and their inclusion in The Atlantic Monthly in 1857 helped secure that magazine's early success.[11] In book form, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table sold ten thousand copies in only three days.[12] It has become Holmes's most enduring work.[5]
Holmes's friend and fellow writer James Russell Lowell believed the protagonist's switch from "Autocrat" to "Professor" in the sequel was a good change, writing to Holmes, "I like the new Professor ... better than the old Autocrat." But Lowell warned him about some of the theological commentary in the book: "The Religious Press ... will be at you, but after smashing one of them you will be able to furnish yourself with a Sampson's [sic] weapon for the rest of the Philistines."[8]
