Hazlitt, William
The Oxford Companion to British History
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2002
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© The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information)
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Hazlitt, William (1778–1830). Hazlitt was the son of a unitarian minister and grew up in Wem (Shropshire), where he met
Coleridge. Religious doubts preventing him following his father's profession, he started as a painter, and then began literary work for newspapers and periodicals. He was an idiosyncratic radical and had some success as a lecturer. But he was cantankerous—‘I have quarrelled with almost all of my old friends’—his two marriages failed, and he was frequently in financial distress. Hazlitt is at his best as an occasional essayist—his piece on the bare-knuckle fight between Neate and the Gas-man is in many anthologies. To historians, his early biography of Thomas Holcroft is of value, as are the
Political Essays of 1819: the late life of Napoleon (1828–30), intended as his
magnum opus, was derivative if not plagiarized, and too hagiographical to win much approval when published. His best work is
The Spirit of the Age (1825), with vivid and caustic sketches of contemporaries such as
Godwin,
Bentham,
Southey,
Scott,
Byron, and
Wordsworth. Of his love of history he wrote: ‘I cannot solve the mystery of the past, nor exhaust my pleasure in it.’
J. A. Cannon
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William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man
Magazine article from: Journalism History; 7/1/2009; ; 700+ words
; Wu, Duncan. William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man...Georgetown and a long-time William Hazlitt scholar, has produced...that Charles Lamb and William Godwin could hardly assuage...friend. As Wu follows Hazlitt, he pictures many men...
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William Hazlitt on dramatic text and performance.(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900; 9/22/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...performance is central to William Hazlitt's dramatic criticism...What specific texts Hazlitt recognized as definitive...Thomas Hanmer (1744) and William Warburton (1747...and concludes that "Hazlitt used a text which, from...
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From the Sale Catalogue of the Library of William Hazlitt, the Essayist.(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: ANQ; 6/22/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...Manuscripts and Letters, collected by William Hazlitt, the Essayist, [...] his Son, the...the matter of presentation copies: father William Hazlitt (1773-1830); son William Hazlitt ( Registrar, 1811-1893), Chief Registrar...
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The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Wordsworth Circle; 9/22/2004; ; 700+ words
; William Hazlitt, The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt, ed. Duncan Wu 9 Vols (Pickering and Chatto Publishers, 1998) 3656 pp. $10935.00 This edition includes in nine handsome volumes the fullest selection of Hazlitt's work currently...
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Idioms of identity: William Hazlitt, language, and culture.(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: Nineteenth-Century Prose; 3/22/2000; ; 700+ words
; ...philosophy, and manners, William Hazlitt's conception of what we...A guest at the Hazlitt home one day, the artist William Bewick was surprised to...down on the instant." William Hazlitt (1778-1830) would not...
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William Hazlitt, on being brilliant.(essay)(literay critic)(1800's)(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: Studies in Romanticism; 12/22/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...most intense replies come from William Hazlitt, who continued to engage with...Allemagne's publication allowed Hazlitt not only to profit from another...Morning Chronicle in November 1813, Hazlitt proceeded to publish four more...
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Tuesday Book: A walnuts-and-wine life of a volatile radical The Quarrel of the Age: the life and times of William Hazlitt by AC Grayling (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pounds 25)
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 11/28/2000; ; 700+ words
; WILLIAM HAZLITT was 11 when the Bastille fell, and always...bright conformists after the Terror, Hazlitt grew more radical as English political...year in dismal Wem, Shropshire. Yet Hazlitt was culturally privileged. The Dissenting...
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 "The Economist (US)")
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Heartache; Literary lives (1); William Hazlitt.(Review)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 1/27/2001; 700+ words
; THE QUARREL OF THE AGE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM HAZLITT. ACCORDING to this new biography, William Hazlitt was the greatest essayist in English letters. He inherited an anti-establishment outlook...
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The Misanthrope's Corner.(William Hazlitt's essay "On the Pleasure of Hating")(Brief Article)(Column)
Magazine article from: National Review; 7/1/2002; ; 700+ words
; ...require students to read the works of William Hazlitt. Not only is he white, male...On the Pleasure of Hating." Hazlitt (1778-1830) was an intense...cultural commentator gag, and Hazlitt did just that. He decided that...
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William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Contemporary Review; 6/22/2009; 549 words
; William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man. Duncan Wu. Oxford...Prof. Wu has followed this pattern with Hazlitt. He has already edited nine volumes of letters along with volumes of Hazlitt's work-He now rounds off this impressive...
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William Hazlitt
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
William Hazlitt The English literary and social critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830) is best known for his...Maidstone, Kent, on April 10, 1778, William Hazlitt was the son of the Reverend William...
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Hazlitt, William
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Hazlitt, William (1778–1830), critic...betrayal of their early radicalism. Hazlitt's first books were political studies...Literary Remains (1836, essays). Hazlitt is now acknowledged as the first original...
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Hazlitt, William Carew
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Hazlitt, William Carew (1834–1913), bibliographer, grandson of William Hazlitt . His works include a Hand-Book to the Popular Poetical and Dramatic...
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Wordsworth, William
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Wordsworth, William (1770–1850), educated...egotistical sublime’, and Hazlitt and later Browning , deplored...collection of letters between Mary and William appeared in The Love Letters of William and Mary Wordsworth , ed. B...
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Beckford, William
Book article from: The Oxford Dictionary of Art
Beckford, William ( b London, 29 Sept. 1760; d Bath, 2 May 1844). English collector...objects of every kind, both natural and artificial; it drew from William Hazlitt the wry comment that ‘the only proof of taste he has shown...
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