Lectures on the English Comic writers ; Lectures on the dramatic literature of the Age of Elizabeth ; A letter to William Gifford, Esq.

Bibliographic Information

Lectures on the English Comic writers ; Lectures on the dramatic literature of the Age of Elizabeth ; A letter to William Gifford, Esq.

[William Hazlitt] ; edited by Duncan Wu

(The Pickering masters, . { The selected writings of William Hazlitt / edited by Duncan Wu ; with an introduction by Tom Paulin } ; v. 5)

Pickering & Chatto, 1998

  • : set

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Note

Originally published of 1st work: London : Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1819

Originally published of 2nd work: London : Stodart and Steuart, 1820

Bibliography: p. 465-468

Description and Table of Contents

Description

William Hazlitt is viewed by many as one of the most distinguished of the non-fiction prose writers to emerge from the Romantic period. This nine-volume edition collects all his major works in complete form.

Table of Contents

  • Volume 1 General Introduction, An Essay on the Principles of Human Action (1805)
  • Characters of Shakespeare's Plays (1817). The introduction to this 9 volume set is by Tom Paulin, author of The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style (1998). Hazlitt's Essay on the Principles of Human Action has been called 'fundamental to his life and work'. It revealed the whole paradox of Hazlitt's future career as a realistic romantic idealist, born into the Christian faith and still retaining after that faith had evaporated an indelible dye of unworldliness. It is featured here in its entirety, taken from the first edition of 1805. Characters of Shakespeare's Plays was Hazlitt's first full-scale work of literary criticism, and his first major success. It consolidated his ideas about Shakespeare, drawing to some extent on the lectures of A W Schlegel and refuting the orthodoxy of Johnsonian criticism. Volume 2 The Round Table (1817)
  • Lectures on the English Poets (1818). In The Round Table, Hazlitt collected 52 of the essays that he wrote for Leigh Hunt's journal, The Examiner between May 1814 and January 1817. It comprises articles on art, literature, and politics, and it established Hazlitt as one of the foremost essayists of the day. His Lectures of the English Poets were delivered in January 1818 to considerable acclaim, and published shortly after. They were very popular and went into a second edition in 1819. Volume 3 A View of the English Stage (1818). In this volume Hazlitt includes together his writings as drama critic during the years 1814-18. It includes some of the most important accounts we have of the acting of Edmund Kean, whose first performance on a London stage, in The Merchant of Venice, Hazlitt attended in 1814. Volume 4 Political Essays (1819). With his collected Political Essays Hazlitt ended his activities as a controversial journalist. He drew upon his writings during the years 1813-18 and added at the end some of his 'characters' of statesmen first printed in the Eloquence of the British Senate, (1807), and some extracts from his Reply to Malthus, (1807). It was in radical hands, being dedicated to John Hunt, printed by John M'Creery, and published by William Hone. Volume 5 A Letter to William Gifford, Esq., (1819)
  • Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
  • Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth (1820). In A Letter to William Gifford, Hazlitt struck back at the editor of the Quarterly Review, the publisher of some of the most virulent articles attacking him and his work. It is a remarkable tour de force of pamphlet prose and richly deserves inclusion here. The lectures on the English comic writers were written in the latter part of 1818, and found admirers in Keats and Leigh Hunt, among others. His last course of lectures, on the dramatic literature of the age of Elizabeth I, was probably written July-September 1819. They were delivered in January 1820, and immediately published to considerable acclaim. Volume 6 Table Talk
  • including some of Hazlitt's most famous essays: 'The Indian Jugglers', 'On the Picturesque and Ideal' and 'On the Fear of Death'. Together with the related two volumes of The Plain Speaker, Table Talk is the major work of Hazlitt's career. Volume 7 Liber Amoris (1823)
  • The Spirit of the Age (1825) Why did Hazlitt write Liber Amoris? It is a question that has tormented Hazlitt scholars for years, for the book is an extrordinary one. In August 1820, he moved to new lodgings in Southampton Buildings and promptly fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Sarah Walker. Liber Amoris tells quite candidly the story of this obsessive futile passion, which ended disastrously when Walker revealed that she had been unfaithful to Hazlitt all along. The Spirit of the Age is probably Hazlitt's greatest single work. It surveys the greatest talents and minds of the romantic period, including character studies of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Gifford, Godwin, Southey, Leigh Hunt and Lamb. Volume 8 The Plain Speaker (1826) This neglected classic is reprinted here for the first time since 1934. It brings together a number of essays published in the periodicals between August 1818 and February 1825, with some that had not appeared previously. Among them, Hazlitt assembled some of his most important works, including 'On Reason and Imagination', 'On Envy', 'The New School of Reform', and 'On Reading Old Books'. Volume 9 'Education of Women' (1815)
  • 'Mr Coleridge's Christabel' (1816)
  • On the Question Whether Pope was a Poet' (1818)
  • 'On the Opera' (1818)
  • 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' (1818)
  • 'Guy Faux' (1821)
  • 'On the Punishment of Death' (1821)
  • 'The Fight' (1822)
  • 'On the Elgin Marbles'(1822)
  • 'My First Aquaintance with Poets' (1823)
  • 'Judging of Pictures' (1823)
  • 'Mr Beckford's Vathek' (1823)
  • 'On Reading New Books' (1825)
  • 'Merry England' (1825) 'On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth' (1827)
  • 'On a Sun-dial' (1827) 'The Main-Chance' (1828) 'Byron and Wordsworth' (1828)
  • 'On Cant and Hypocrisy' (1828)
  • 'Memorabilia of Mr Coleridge' (1829)
  • 'The Free Admission' (1830)
  • 'The Sick Chamber' (1830)
  • 'The Letter-Bell' (1831) This volume brings together some of the most important of the essays not collected in book form by Hazlitt during his lifetime. They include his recollections of Coleridge, his thoughts on Byron, his important comments on the Elgin marbles, and his final essays.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA39207204
  • ISBN
    • 1851963693
    • 1851963650
  • LCCN
    98010129
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    London
  • Pages/Volumes
    xxix, 468 p.
  • Size
    25 cm
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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