Winterslow Essays and Characters Written There

by William Hazlitt

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Genres: Essays

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
William^Hazlitt

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell, but his work is currently little-read and mostly out of print. During his lifetime, he befriended many people who are now part of the 19th-century literary canon, including Charles and Mary Lamb, Stendhal, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

Hazlitt was the son of the Unitarian minister and writer, William Hazlitt, who greatly influenced his work. Hazlitt's son, also called William Hazlitt, and grandson, William Carew Hazlitt, were also writers.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.

Reviews

[Dwayne Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hazlitt was a huge presence in his time, but has been largely forgotten outside of histories of the era (Barzun, Zamoyski). These essays are quintessentially Romantic, full of paeans to Nature and simplicity, to the noble rapture of human sentiment, to abstract Ideals and universal brotherhood, etc. They're also stuffed with mots and original figurative language: Hazlitt avoids cliche and expresses ideas in pithy and novel ways. It's stunning to the 21st century reader how long he is able to continue on a train of thought in a single sentence, linking phrases and clauses together and splicing in classical quote without the need of a period to catch his breath. That's not the modern style, of course, but it's not easy to do, either.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some excellent essays and some mediocre ones. Probably worth reading more than once, as it takes some time to acclimate to his style and pace. He had really only started to grow on my by the time I made it to the character sketches.

[Jeremy Egerer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars due to a couple of rambling and almost pointless sections (unfortunately right at the beginning, unless you're a fan of poetry), but a pretty good collection of essays overall; with a few unmissable gems such as On Party Spirit, On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth, and On Public Opinion. The most of them aren't life-changing, but they are thoughtful and interesting and provide some very concise assessments on things like the philosophy and virtues of Edmund Burke, and they're written well enough to make even the more difficult portions more easily digestible. Not the finest essayist (from what I can tell from this collection), but certainly better than most. Worth a read, if only for the essays I mentioned above.

[Lucas Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sublime testament to the power of the classic English essay. Throughout all these essays runs a common philosophical weight, which is quite unique amongst the canon essayists. The essays in this book are still-to this day- readable, relevant, and above all, enjoyable (although some of his most famous essays are unfortunately absent). There is very little in the way of throat clearing, Hazlitt goes straight for the jugular with his scathing and evocative critiques on a broad range of subjects - poetry, politicians, sports.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hit or miss. A few essays seemed worthwhile to me, but overall it didn't appeal to me.