Here, chronologically arranged, are 12 key passages from our collection of classic essays on english prose style. The search for le mot juste the precise word so fanatically pursued by admirers of flaubert and maupassant is far less important in nonfictional prose than in the novel and the short story. Blind orion searching for the rising sun 1658 one remarkable aspect of william hazlitts art criticism is how he uses verbs to invigorate and intensify his description of artworks. The spirit of the age or contemporary portraits to know another well were to know ones self. I dont want to set up binaries in the way i talk or think about the feminine and the masculine, like men and women, but i do know that ive written a book thats very grounded in a feminine way, or in female characters. William hazlitts prose style immediately struck me, and even after studying the styles of many great english writers across the centuries, i still come back to hazlitts, and regard it as probably the greatest prose style in the english language though not without close competitors. Hazlitt, william wordsworth his poems can be considered as great prose and so on, have no special distinctive style.
A student of the art of prose, hazlitt combined conversational and literary language. In on familiar style originally published in the london magazine and reprinted in table talk, 1822, hazlitt explains his preference for plain words and popular modes of construction. Lacking conscious artistry or literary pretention, his writing is noted for the brilliant intellect it reveals. Winning an argument may be a matter of having the last word, but for the writer, the true end of writing is. On the prosestyle of poets, on the conversation of authors, on reason and imagination, and on envy, to name a few.
The writing of nonfictional prose should not entail the tension, the monotony, and the selfconscious craft of fiction writing. At age he had the satisfaction of seeing his writing appear in print for the first. A master of invective and irony, essayist william hazlitt was one of the great prose stylists of the 19th century. The surrey institution lectures were printed in book form, followed by a. The key essays by william hazlitt and duncan wu 1998, paperback at the best online prices at. This indicates that hazlitt acknowledges the emotion toward and connection with nature, but compares his delivery to useful but bland everyday items. The plain speaker was the last great original work of william hazlitt 17781830, the finest prose writer of the romantic period. He was one of the best translators with a good command of english.
He arrives at a style, which reveals the writers the evershifting forms of an eternal principle. Hazlitt comments that wordsworths style of writing is to, take a subject or a story merely as pegs or loops to hang thought and feeling on william hazlitts spirit of the age. Because of that definition he cites pilgrims progress and robinson crusoe as great poetic works. William hazlitt, english writer best known for his humanistic essays. The illisus, and prose style and the elgin marbles.
Or, contemporary portraits is a collection of character sketches by the early 19th century english essayist, literary critic, and social commentator william hazlitt, portraying 25 men, mostly british, whom he believed to represent significant trends in the thought, literature, and politics of his time. Hazlitt has already arrived at his conclusion regarding his idea. Thus his influence on the english essay has been healthier than lambs. Hazlitts place in the romantic canon spans the range from impressionist to critic.
If end i gained it ends beyond indefinite disclosed emily dickinson. On william hazlitt, ciceronianism, and romanticperiod prose. William hazlitt 17781830 developed a variety of identities as a writer. Hazlitt says that poetry lifts the spirit above the earth and draws the soul out of itself with indescribable longings. There is a sudden hurry of spirit which never fails to accompany the fine show of reason and taste under which the mind is hardly at leisure to select beauties or start objections. It is written with characteristic passion, and displays his erudition and wit to fine effect in some of his most important essays. Elizabethan prose many writers of the elizabethan age translated various books into english.
Buy a cheap copy of selected writings oxford worlds. William hazlitts prose style combines energy and vigor, ease and effectiveness. Lectures on the literature of the age of elizabeth. Hazlitt thought his prose style the most perfect to be found in english, the most powerful, the most dazzling, the most daring, that which went the nearest to the verge of poetry, and yet never fell overa style forked and. This essay examines hazlitts essayism, the totality of impressionisticcritical response constituting his practice as an essayist, and argues that his writings reflect not the primacy of either the critic or the impressionist but the speculative interplay of both. It is no ordinary matter to peruse a book of hazlitts. Despite the changes in english prose over the past few centuries, we may still benefit from the stylistic observations of the old masters. List of books and articles about william hazlitt online. His many essays are famous for the lucidity and brilliance in both style and content.
Tom paulin in this text paulin does for hazlitt what christopher hill did for milton, offering a fullyrounded literary portrait against a background of depth and detail never before adequately appreciated. William hazlitt was one of the leading prose writers of the romantic period. A list of books by and about hazlitt and their contents. William hazlitt, born april 10, 1778, maidstone, kent, eng. A series of three passagesone drawn from each period of his writing and each group written on the same topicreveal that william hazlitts interests remained constant throughout his writing career. A test of character, as of sensations and ideas, it bodied forth the relationships between human beings and the objects of their love, hatred, and indifference. Tom paulin celebrates william hazlitt, the master of prose. Discover librarianselected research resources on william hazlitt from the questia online library, including fulltext online books, academic journals, magazines, newspapers and more.
It is to overcome the flats and sharps of prose that poetry was invented. Hazlitts childhood was spent in ireland and north america, where his father, a unitarian preacher, supported the. Comment on william hazlitt prose style ba english notes. Insofar as the narrative crests upon the authors engrossing choreography of the facts instead of the luster of his prose style, the book may best be adjudged an. Hazlitt is regarded as one of the greatest masters of english prose. Hazlittites, romanticists, and students of 19thcentury radical english politics should all find something laudable in wus new book, william hazlitt. Society, by degrees, is constructed into a machine that carries us safely and insipidly from one end of life to the other, in a very prose style. Hazlitt s childhood was spent in ireland and north america. Hazlitts contrariness and familiar prose style ingenta connect. Nominated for the national book critics circle award in criticism when it was first published in. A master of english prose style, a beautifully modulated general essayist, the first great theatre critic in english, the first great art critic, a magnificent political journalist and polemicist like william cobbett, whom he met and whom he describes affectionately in the spirit of the age, his greatest book, hazlitt is both a philosopher and. They are presented here alongside four other essays on the visual arts, which brilliantly connect the vitality of painting with that of sculpture and writing prose. Have you had the experience of discussing the book with people who arent women, or dont identify as women. William hazlitt 17781830 developed a variety of identities as a.
What are the pros and cons of writing an entire novel in beige prose. William hazlitts prose style combines energy and vigor, ease and. I decided to post it before it turned into a dang book chapter. Writing in a generation in which the standards of prose were conspicuously unsettled, when the most ambitious writers were seeking an escape from the frozen patterns of the eighteenth century in a restoration of the elaborate artifices of the seventeenth, when quaintness and ornateness were the evidence of a distinguished style, hazlitt. Sir thomas north translated plutarch lives of the noble grecians and romans. He also had the ability to weave words into powerful sentences. Nature and genius alone could sympathise with soft suffusion of the soul, speechless breathing eloquence, looks commencing with the skies. This book is a superb appreciation of the man and his works, at once a revaluation of the aesthetics of romanticism and a sustained intellectual portrait. Some of the notes, such as the character of burke in vol. Ac grayling, who is himself completing a biography of hazlitt, generously recommends tom paulins rival work but questions his claim that hazlitt was an irishman. Hazlitts prose therefore illustrates a fine combination of intellect and feeling.
William hazlitts prose style immediately struck me, and even after studying the. Hazlitt is always a critic of oratory and prose style, and he is particularly brilliant on william pitts mechanical and evasive manner of addressing. He is also arguably the best and most important critic. The subjects include thinkers, social reformers, politicians, poets, essayists, and novelists, many of whom hazlitt was personally. Their concrete expression in his essays, however, underwent a gradual development in style, with modifications in syntax, imagery, and stance. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is. As a stylistic principle, hazlitts ideal of keeping in prose descends from eighteenthcentury conceptions of decorum in painting, the art in which he was initially trained. Spirit of the age the hazlitt society ucl university.
The spirit of the age full title the spirit of the age. William hazlitt was one of the great geniuses of english letters. Its only in the past couple of decades that hazlitt has been enjoying a serious revival, mainly through the efforts of michael foot, the former leader of. See all books authored by william hazlitt, including the table talk of martin luther, and on the pleasure of hating, and more on. His intellect is plenary his first book, an essay on the principles of human action, is. Essayist, lecturer, and radical pamphleteer, william hazlitt 17781830 was the greatest of english critics and a master of the art of prose. Hazlitt is always a critic of oratory and prose style, and he is particularly brilliant on william pitts mechanical and evasive manner of addressing the house of commons. In doing so, hazlitt stylistically challenged the boundaries of genre. It is to be found in lectures on the english comic writers 1819 and in the plain speaker 1826. I cant imagine anyone in the future writing about the intricacies and beauties of f r leaviss prose style, but hazlitt s prose is unique in its texture, boldness and dramatic empathy. But at the level of expression or sentence, i think anyone can read this book i think a kid can read this book. His style is concrete, vivid, personal and vigorous. William hazlitt is one of the greatest writers of prose in the english language, and the greatest exponent of the essay that personal, miscellaneous, freeflowing prose composition that constitutes an art form celebrated for its riches of content and style.
In conclusion we may say that william hazlitt was a more consistent prose eerier of clear and english in the early period of the 19 th century. We personally assess every book s quality and offer rare, out. William hazlitt on style classic british essays thoughtco. In the book i argue that mourning dissent was a deliberate and critically effective calculation within the restless contours of hazlitts contradictory prose style. This book identifies themetaphysical hazlitt within the other and betterknown hazlitt, long acknowledged as a master of the familiar style and more recently celebrated for the fierceness and intensity of. The poetical prosewriter stops to describe an object, if he admires it, or thinks it will bear to be dwelt on. The elgin marbles, brought to england from athens in 1806, are the subject of three of hazlitts most famous and enduring essays. The speed and style of the prose is partially dictated by this glossolalist protagonist, but i felt like your writing itself was an exercise in breaking form. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the english language, 1 2 placed in the company of samuel johnson and george orwell. Ii, are in his best style, and lend a special interest to the volumes which they would otherwise not possess. William hazlitt 10 april 1778 18 september 1830 was an english essayist, drama and. William hazlitt books list of books by author william.
Many of the components of hazlitts style begin to take shape in these round. For my purposes here, the key point may be that nostalgic meditations on sectarian faith become a vector for hazlitts paradoxically skeptical and even retrospective political. William hazlitt 10 april 1778 18 september 1830 was an english essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. The project gutenberg ebook of the collected works of. This paper also makes an argument for the crucial role material culture played in hazlitts writing style.
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