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Notes the Edinburgh Review, the Yellow Dwarf and the London Magazine. In these journals Hazlitt
produced a series of essays on art, drama, literature and politics. During this period he established
himself as England’s leading expert on the writings of William Shakespeare.
Hazlitt wrote several books on literature including Characters of Shakespeare (1817), A View of
the English Stage (1818), English Poets (1818) and English Comic Writers (1819). In these books he
urged the artist to be aware of his social and political responsibilities. Hazlitt continued to write
about politics and his most important books on this subject is Political Essays with Sketches of
Public Characters (1819). In the book Hazlitt explains how the admiration of power turns many
writers into “intellectual pimps and hirelings of the press.”
Hazlitt’s marriage to Sarah ended in 1823 as a result of an affair with a maid, Sarah Walker.
Hazlitt wrote an account of this relationship in his book Liber Amoris. In 1824 Hazlitt married
Isabella Bridgewater but this relationship only lasted a year.
In the The Spirit of the Age: Contemporary Portraits (1825) Hazlitt provides a series of contemporary
portraits including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, William
Cobbett, William Godwin and William Wilberforce. This was followed by The Plain Speaker
(1826) and Life of Napoleon (4 volumes, 1828-30). William Hazlitt died in poverty of stomach
cancer on 18th September 1830.

17.1 William Hazlitt: Philosopher, Essayist, and Critic

Among the many great essayists of the Romantic era, considered one of the best is William Hazlitt.
The London born actor Hazlitt was extremely trenchant essayist, and a blunt and overall carping
critic known for arguing over a vast field of topics such as government and politics of England.
When writing “On the Pleasure of Hating” and his other essays, William Hazlitt was influenced
most prominently by his life and schooling, other great writers, and his literary experience.
Hazlitt’s father was a minister who was known for his radical political beliefs influenced Hazlitt
in the sense that he grew up with the same political values and stayed faithful to those beliefs until
his death . These radical tendencies are also believed to be the reason for his fighting. Hazlitt was
always known to argue and fight, and this was a source of happiness for him . At first following
in his father’s footsteps, Hazlitt went to college in London studying and learning in the field of
ministry; however, the young William Hazlitt withdrew from these plans. After giving up the
field of ministry, Hazlitt then began to explore the fields of philosophy, politics, and literature that
made him the tough critic and quintessential writer that he became known as.
Continuing his young life, Hazlitt attended Hackney College in London to study philosophy as a
teenager and young adult. While interested in philosophy, he wrote books and lectures on the
subject, further expanding his experience and diversity of literary fields. Hazlitt then changed his
interests another time by switching his focus onto politics and the French Revolution, which
Hazlitt was in favor of. Not only was Hazlitt a huge supporter of the French Revolution, but also
supported the French ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte. Contrary to the opinions of many people, Hazlitt
viewed Napoleon as a hero rather than a power-hungry emperor . The reason for William Hazlitt’s
opinions on Napoleon can best be supported by the fact that he was extremely radical in his
politics, because many other radical politicians shared the same views of the French emperor
Napoleon. Throughout Hazlitt’s younger years, he explored philosophy, politics, and literature
while he grew as a writer. The diversity of his literary abilities created his convincing style.
Also playing a vital role in the development of influences in Hazlitt’s writing is the influence of
great writers such as William Shakespeare and Wordsworth. For example, “the dialect of this
poetics of power depends upon an interplay of Shakespearean and Wordsworthian influences
upon Hazlitt .” Shakespeare was an especially important influence in the sense that Hazlitt was
known for writing essays on Shakespeare. William Shakespeare gave Hazlitt “an awareness that

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