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LIBER AMORIS
Book by Hazlitt, William
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1823
17 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
William Hazlitt
1,064 books176 followersWilliam 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 17, 2016
It's rather hard to imagine a less appealing character than this story's narrator. He is delusional, paranoid, selfish, manipulative, creepy, pompous, abusive. How much of this H. is real Hazlitt, a writer of great talent and perception, is a curious question. Whether narrator's mania comes through so forcefully thanks to the work of critical reconstruction, or is it just simple honesty, this is a rather astonishing report of love life at its lowest, with no saving grace or absolution.
Happy is a reader who would find no traces of him/herself in the H.'s rantings and suspicions, but alas, this is not something I could say about myself.
Happy is a reader who would find no traces of him/herself in the H.'s rantings and suspicions, but alas, this is not something I could say about myself.
June 6, 2017
That ugly reflection is yourself.
I was already a fan of Hazlitt before reading this and even more so now. Unlike anything else he wrote, this is a tormenting account of how possessive love can be. Without fear of how he is perceived, Hazlitt is clearly writing from personal experience as he executes passage after passage with such skill in depicting the young male condition.
Nobody wants to listen to that friend who pours endlessly about 'that girl', so I would recommend this to men in such a situation of unrequited love because such a personal account leaves no stone unturned of what it is possible to feel. Hazlitt does not disguise how ugly one becomes, it is uncensored thoughts, and the book has a power to convey this affliction and how it infects every day life.
This describes a particular kind of 'love' that makes an individual capable of doing anything in order to get someone to submit. Normally one will never get the chance to apologise or make up for the wrongs done in such a state. The context in which this was written is an act of total desperation.
Of course he was a total bastard to publish this, but that just emphasises the point.
(I am unsure if this work translates to older men and/or women)
I was already a fan of Hazlitt before reading this and even more so now. Unlike anything else he wrote, this is a tormenting account of how possessive love can be. Without fear of how he is perceived, Hazlitt is clearly writing from personal experience as he executes passage after passage with such skill in depicting the young male condition.
Nobody wants to listen to that friend who pours endlessly about 'that girl', so I would recommend this to men in such a situation of unrequited love because such a personal account leaves no stone unturned of what it is possible to feel. Hazlitt does not disguise how ugly one becomes, it is uncensored thoughts, and the book has a power to convey this affliction and how it infects every day life.
This describes a particular kind of 'love' that makes an individual capable of doing anything in order to get someone to submit. Normally one will never get the chance to apologise or make up for the wrongs done in such a state. The context in which this was written is an act of total desperation.
Of course he was a total bastard to publish this, but that just emphasises the point.
(I am unsure if this work translates to older men and/or women)
December 18, 2014
Well, that was icky
Quite mortifying to read this, having always admired Hazlitt's writing. It seems hardly possible to believe any more there can be any insight or good judgement in his essays, when he could write this, ostensibly to uncover the treachery of the woman he "loved" (stalked, hounded, slobbered over, terrified). He published their letters, transcribed their conversations verbatim, all to convict her; and on every single page he, Hazlitt himself, is almost unbearable to watch.
Quite mortifying to read this, having always admired Hazlitt's writing. It seems hardly possible to believe any more there can be any insight or good judgement in his essays, when he could write this, ostensibly to uncover the treachery of the woman he "loved" (stalked, hounded, slobbered over, terrified). He published their letters, transcribed their conversations verbatim, all to convict her; and on every single page he, Hazlitt himself, is almost unbearable to watch.
April 15, 2013
A good enough place to start with the sadly-overlooked but very interesting Mr. Hazlitt and his wide scope of writing. Hazlitt is crucial to modern/post-modern critical writing because he took an interest in the aesthetics of writing and complexity of narrative before nearly anyone else was doing what today would be consider narratological literary criticism. Hazlitt had a wide-ranging interest in writing, including journalism but also was deeply into both sacred and secular philosophy. He thus brought a comprehensive, encompassing, approach to his literary writing that is refreshing and dynamic. The whole concept of a "New Pygmalion" itself is very enticing and this book doesn't disappoint in the least.
August 12, 2018
So, incels aren't a modern phenomenon. Whiny, entitled men unable to see women as fellow human beings have always existed, and William Hazlitt was one of them. This is a collection of letters, in which he lays out his unrequited obsession with an unwilling girl to his undoubtedly long-suffering, angelically patient friends, asking them for advice.
The girl is a saint, or she's a demon - there is no in-between. If his friends are to be pitied, at least he respects them, while he alternates between hurling abuse and pressing kisses on the hapless object of his feverish, puerile affections.
If this man doesn't try your patience, you're a better person than I.
The girl is a saint, or she's a demon - there is no in-between. If his friends are to be pitied, at least he respects them, while he alternates between hurling abuse and pressing kisses on the hapless object of his feverish, puerile affections.
If this man doesn't try your patience, you're a better person than I.
March 26, 2018
"I have finished the book of my conversations with her which I told you of: if I am not mistaken, you will think it very nice reading."
_____
". . . for months on end a near-crazed Hazlitt had been telling 'the whole cursed story' to anybody who would listen"
"The reviewer simply quoted large chunks of the text — clearly considering that it condemned itself — and kept his own critical remarks to a minimum: 'What delicacy! What manliness! What a veil is here rent away'"
__________
Having read some of Hazlitt's Essays, it's hard to believe that this work was written by the same man!
Hazlitt's obsession with the young Sarah Walker, and frustration at his unrequited Love, does not make for particularly engaging reading, and I would only recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Hazlitt himself.
If you are unfamiliar with Hazlitt, definitely read his Essays and other works first, and do not begin with this.
Having said that, if you do wish to read Libor Amoris, this edition is highly recommended. It not only contains detailed notes, but also includes a selection of related works.
__________
3 stars for Liber Amoris, 4 stars for the included related works in this edition, which are as follows:
• The Journal of F
• The Fight
• On Great and Little Things
• On the Disadvantages of Intellectual Superiority
• On the Knowledge of Character
• On the Fear of Death
• Selections from Characteristics
__________
"When I press her hand, I enjoy perfect happiness and contentment of soul."
"I am melancholy, lonesome, and weaker than a child."
May 21, 2020
1.5 Stars
A tediously long rant from H, a man supposedly in love with the daughter of his lodgers with whom he resides after separating with his wife in the 1820s. Rather, it comes off an this obsessive, possessive, hateful demonstration of power as he flings her about his estimations from demon witch to saintly angel. If this is indeed to be considered a text situated in the Romantic movement of the early 19th century, then it surely is one of the worst examples of ghastly ranting, obsessive and narcissistic love. I mean the girl seems to do nothing wrong, or nothing but that which her lower station requires her to--to placate him as a patron, but he cannot see that, and the slightest smile is taken out of context, as is her self-distancing mistaken for coldness when in fact she might be growing fearful of his obsession. At one point I feared for her safety. But we're only ever reading Sarah through the gaps of what the narrator might not be picking up on. It's puzzling why Hazlitt, such a regarded essayist, would even bother to publish this--it seems almost as a self-consolation and justification for his obsession, a balm for himself.
Even as an aesthetic experiment it seems to fails, so again, unsure of his motives in this text. In his own solipsistic worldview, he casts his 'love', the poor Sarah, as the other to his master--she is trapped in his language. There are few redeeming images where he pauses from raving about Sarah's apparent coquettish cruelty and moves towards scenes set in nature where he awes and marvels at these worldly terrors but then that is another means to cast himself off into these hedonistic concepts and move further away from the bodily, the materiality of the world. It's a terrifying worldview because it is so self-deceptive and strained. A quick enough read, but even for a course on the Romantics, I'm unsure what one might want or need to read this for. I mean his self delusion is realistic, his ranting reads scarily modern and so are quite humorous whilst also being horrifying--so there's that. I've heard similar (albeit relatively shorter) rants from men about their exes...so not all that much changes in these regards over 200 years.
A tediously long rant from H, a man supposedly in love with the daughter of his lodgers with whom he resides after separating with his wife in the 1820s. Rather, it comes off an this obsessive, possessive, hateful demonstration of power as he flings her about his estimations from demon witch to saintly angel. If this is indeed to be considered a text situated in the Romantic movement of the early 19th century, then it surely is one of the worst examples of ghastly ranting, obsessive and narcissistic love. I mean the girl seems to do nothing wrong, or nothing but that which her lower station requires her to--to placate him as a patron, but he cannot see that, and the slightest smile is taken out of context, as is her self-distancing mistaken for coldness when in fact she might be growing fearful of his obsession. At one point I feared for her safety. But we're only ever reading Sarah through the gaps of what the narrator might not be picking up on. It's puzzling why Hazlitt, such a regarded essayist, would even bother to publish this--it seems almost as a self-consolation and justification for his obsession, a balm for himself.
Even as an aesthetic experiment it seems to fails, so again, unsure of his motives in this text. In his own solipsistic worldview, he casts his 'love', the poor Sarah, as the other to his master--she is trapped in his language. There are few redeeming images where he pauses from raving about Sarah's apparent coquettish cruelty and moves towards scenes set in nature where he awes and marvels at these worldly terrors but then that is another means to cast himself off into these hedonistic concepts and move further away from the bodily, the materiality of the world. It's a terrifying worldview because it is so self-deceptive and strained. A quick enough read, but even for a course on the Romantics, I'm unsure what one might want or need to read this for. I mean his self delusion is realistic, his ranting reads scarily modern and so are quite humorous whilst also being horrifying--so there's that. I've heard similar (albeit relatively shorter) rants from men about their exes...so not all that much changes in these regards over 200 years.
May 18, 2022
Spoiler Alert
If you are a 1820's audience this is a work about how the underclass women seduce and destroy the manhood of the gentry and upperclass. You see an man who is trying to get the servant girl he loves to marry him but she won't and he doesn't understand why. But once he figures out that she is serious about not marrying him he finds various excuse and declares that she is loose with her love and gives it willingly to any man who shows her favor.
If you are a 21'st century reader you see a rapist who is also still stalking his victim. Who will not take no for an answer. Who continues to harass Sarah, his victim, even when he is in Scotland. Who upon his return from Scotland moves into the same rooms he lived in before where he raped her. Who insists that she see him and when he finds out she has found (?) another Paramore decides that she is a loose women who has no morals. We never find out who H our narrator is but he is definitely unreliable as he is the one who attacked Sarah. His her Rapist and stalker. When he can't get her to marry him he developed an entire story out of her relationship with C. All we see is harmless walking together. And again H is an extremely unreliable narrator.
The work does have lessons for today in that the GOP wants a return to these good ol days and a continuous lower class of women and men that they as the moneyed class can abuse and stalk with impunity. If you want to see the GOP ideal world of male feamale relations read this work.
If you are a 1820's audience this is a work about how the underclass women seduce and destroy the manhood of the gentry and upperclass. You see an man who is trying to get the servant girl he loves to marry him but she won't and he doesn't understand why. But once he figures out that she is serious about not marrying him he finds various excuse and declares that she is loose with her love and gives it willingly to any man who shows her favor.
If you are a 21'st century reader you see a rapist who is also still stalking his victim. Who will not take no for an answer. Who continues to harass Sarah, his victim, even when he is in Scotland. Who upon his return from Scotland moves into the same rooms he lived in before where he raped her. Who insists that she see him and when he finds out she has found (?) another Paramore decides that she is a loose women who has no morals. We never find out who H our narrator is but he is definitely unreliable as he is the one who attacked Sarah. His her Rapist and stalker. When he can't get her to marry him he developed an entire story out of her relationship with C. All we see is harmless walking together. And again H is an extremely unreliable narrator.
The work does have lessons for today in that the GOP wants a return to these good ol days and a continuous lower class of women and men that they as the moneyed class can abuse and stalk with impunity. If you want to see the GOP ideal world of male feamale relations read this work.
January 29, 2018
There are undoubtedly some stunning lines in this, but poor Hazlitt sounds so hopelessly desperate, on the verge of disturbing and pathetic, that I found it somewhat difficult to read, especially after reading some of his brilliant essays. If he was attempting to emulate Rousseau he fell short. It does make for an interesting compare and contrast of his writings, but it's not something I'd recommend to someone unfamiliar with his essays as I feel this is not a fair representation of his writing.
April 27, 2021
An essential document, a bitter story
November 14, 2023
Written in a white-heat, awesome like a hurricane is destructive.
September 12, 2016
This book is not easily classified. It is a frame story, an epistolary novel, a confession. Its structure and meaning is so intertwined with its plot, that none can properly discussed without creating a spoiler situation. Although the story is initially disorienting, the reader's perseverance will be rewarded.
September 17, 2016
The rather astonishing story of the ill-fated love affair Hazlitt had with Sarah, the daughter of his landlord, while separated but not divorced from his wife. The range of passions here is rather disturbing; he could possibly been seen as a stalker today, seemingly fuelled by a disbelief in Sarah's continued statement that she did not love him and was, in fact, seeing someone else. Was she playing him? Hazlitt goes from loving to raging - and everything in between - during the course of the book, including suicidal thoughts. This 'book of love' was honesty and insanity from love (however temporary) on the page.
September 16, 2015
Assigned reading for a university module. The edition I purchased was formatted ridiculously badly; titles were on individual pages, the writing wasn't centred and some lines had two words while others had minuscule font. The actual text, however, was entertaining and fun to read. The narrator was an obsessive prick, with no respect for boundaries, and I felt sorry for Sarah, but at the same time, he was so much like a needy child that I pitied him as well. A decent read, if you can find a professional copy.
November 15, 2007
Read this and The Far Side of a Kiss around the same time. They are connected -- Haverty's book being a telling of the story of Liber Amoris from the viewpoint of the girl. And of course - the tie to Pygmalion -- how would one resist this dual read? Well, I suppose one could but I didn't.
January 28, 2008
If you are interested in the self-absorbed rantings of a man who is in "love" with a girl who repeatedly refuses to reciprocate, this book is for you.
June 19, 2013
Masterfu, if a bit disturbing, meditation on obsession and delusion. Reminded me of "Don Quixote."
August 28, 2013
I'm trying to figure out if it's possible on this site to give a book 0 stars.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews