William Hazlitt
English essayist and critic who brought personal passion and radical politics to literary criticism. On the Pleasures of Hating and The Spirit of the Age are among the finest English essays. He is the first great English critic to write from an explicitly personal, impressionistic standpoint.
Works
- The Spirit of the AgeEssays on Hazlitt's Romantic contemporaries—Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth—analyzing their genius and influence
- Table TalkCollection of Hazlitt's casual essays on literature, philosophy, politics, and everyday life
- Liber AmorisHazlitt's autobiographical novella documenting his obsessive, unrequited passion for a young woman
- Characters of Shakespeare's PlaysHazlitt's detailed critical examination of Shakespeare's characters and dramatic construction
- The Plain SpeakerEssays defending honest plain-speaking against pretension, hypocrisy, and fashionable cant
- Lectures on the English PoetsHazlitt's lectures on English poetry from Chaucer onward, analyzing the poetic genius of major figures