Compilations to expand your horizons and provoke your thoughts.

The essay is having a comeback. This may surprise those for whom the word is primarily associated with having one hour, 20 blank pages and nothing whatsoever to say about factors contributing to the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. But repress those exam nightmares for a moment. The essay has long been associated with some of the most original and exciting voices in literature. Now, novelist Ms Zadie Smith is re-popularising the form, with a new volume – titled Feel Free – which tackles everything from Brexit to Mr Justin Bieber. The best essays aren’t just studies of their subject, though. They are stages for the bravura human act of thinking. Here are five essential collections packed with urgent polemic, comic digression and (unconventional) wisdom.

**The Complete Essays (Penguin Classics) by Mr Michel de Montaigne **

The original and the best, this 16th-century French nobleman tucked himself away in a tower for 20 years to contemplate such topics as marriage, drunkenness and the unruliness of his member (see his essay “On the Power Of Imagination”). Now widely regarded as “the first modern man”, Mr Montaigne used his life as the lens through which to contemplate existence, and urged readers to be themselves: for “on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump”.

**Essays (Penguin Modern Classics) by Mr George Orwell **

The author of 1984 and Animal Farm was also a fantastic essay writer: deeply moral yet infinitely readable, and never pretentious. The 30-plus essays in this collection are full of period flavour and timeless insight, including the wonderfully titled “Books Vs Cigarettes”, and shocking accounts of shooting an elephant and watching a hanging. “The Lion And The Unicorn” was penned during the Blitz and swiftly entered political history. But – as evidenced by “Some Thoughts On The Common Toad” – the man could write about anything.

**Loitering (Tin House Books) by Mr Charles D’Ambrosio **

This contemporary American short-story writer gained a cult following with his 2005 essay volume, “Orphans”. The original now goes for £100 on Amazon. But you can read those pieces – on everything from a whaling trip to a tour of a Pentecostal haunted house – in this updated collection. What's all the fuss? The beauty, humanity and autobiographical grit of Mr D’Ambrosio’s writing; he once observed that he writes sentences instead of sobbing. If he has an overarching theme, it is being a man, and the fundamental importance of uncertainty.

**Men Explain Things To Me (Haymarket Books) by Ms Rebecca Solnit **

Ms Rebecca Solnit didn’t quite invent the term “mansplaining”, but she certainly launched the concept. Her 2008 comic critique of male arrogance both caught the popular social media imagination and ushered in the current golden age of feminist essay writing. Men Explain Things To Me is accompanied in this collection by six scathing pieces on topics such as rape, domestic violence and the symbolic annihilation of women. Sound heavy? Ms Solnit’s funny, fierce and brilliantly argued writing makes it a joy.

**Feel Free (Penguin Random House) by Ms Zadie Smith **

Like what you like, and disagree wherever you see fit. That’s the liberating invitation at the heart of this second essay collection from the bestselling White Teeth author. Featuring pieces written over the last eight years for mainly American magazines, it includes essays on everything from Jay-Z to Mr JG Ballard, Ms Joni Mitchell to the nature of joy. Ms Smith has serious academic chops, but her essays are characterised by their enthusiasm and inclusivity: “I feel this – do you? I’m struck by this thought – are you?”