On this point, I disagree completely: Any essay worth reading should be expected to require effort on the part of the reader. Furthermore, as you can probably tell from my posts to you, I actually enjoy reading (and writing) wordy documents. Precision is important, and I only embrace brevity (and only expect others to do so) if the exact meaning of the text is preserved.
I do not believe that the writer could have crafted his essay in a substantially smaller number of words.
too full of famous names and too arrogantly immodest not to find a bit of fault in the end.
As to these counts, I thought, while reading the essay, that the writer was using names in a justifiable way to make his arguments, and was in no way either arrogant or immodest. Clearly, we must agree to differ on these points.
Just to continue the conversation, let me suggest that there are essays of an explanatory or descriptive nature which are so evocative and vivid as to require little effort to imagine and image.
That said, even though I try for clarity in my own descriptions, I do try to leave something for the imagination. I like to conceal tiny glinting nuances of secondary meanings which can give additional delight to the astute observer.
Clearly, you're more stubborn than honest.