{"title":"William Hazlitt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Hazlitt\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (1778–1830) is widely regarded as one of the greatest essayists in the English language, known for his art and literary criticism and his radical political commentary. Also an accomplished painter, Hazlitt befriended many other prominent nineteenth-century figures during his life, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, John Keats, and Stendhal. Among his most admired works are the collections \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharacters of Shakespeare’s Plays\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eTable-Talk\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of the Age\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"selected-essays","title":"The Fight","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I am no politician, and still less can I be said to be a party-man: but I have a hatred of tyranny, and a contempt for its tools; and this feeling I have expressed as often and as strongly as I could. I cannot sit quietly down under the claims of barefaced power, and I have tried to expose the little arts of sophistry by which they are defended.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOf the great writers of the English Romantic age, William Hazlitt comes closest to the modern sensibility. A dissident in politics, a radical commentator on the discontents of the Regency years, he was also an admired theatre and art critic, and a generous appreciator of the new poetry of Wordsworth, Keats, and others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Bromwich—the author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHazlitt: The Mind of a Critic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—has selected the best of Hazlitt’s essays to represent the continuous strength and inventiveness of his prose. This volume includes familiar essays such as “On the Pleasure of Painting” and “On the Pleasure of Hating,” as well as Hazlitt’s memoir of his early encounters with Coleridge and Wordsworth, “My First Acquaintance with Poets.” Here, too, are his inimitable sketches of Shakespeare’s characters, and sharply rendered portraits of contemporaries such as Jeremy Bentham, William Godwin, Sir Walter Scott, and Lord Byron.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55223649665192,"sku":"9798896230267","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0726\/9203\/files\/hazlitt-final.jpg?v=1775157283"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.nyrb.com\/collections\/william-hazlitt.oembed","provider":"New York Review Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}