Hazlitt wrote largely of his contemporaries, though in of reading old books. William hazlitt 17781830 developed a variety of identities as a writer. 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. William hazlitt, born april 10, 1778, maidstone, kent, eng.
Hazlitt got a new idea of prose style which must have had some influence in. Hazlitt began as a philosopher, and his first book, an essay on the. Comment on william hazlitt prose style we may all be mighty fine fellows, but none of us can write william hazlitt thus spoke stevenson about hazlitt s style. The poetic aspect of their prose should be taken as that they have a poetic prose style. 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. William hazlitt as a critic of prose fiction jstor. William carew hazlitt, 183419, his grandson, was a bibliographer and wrote the memoirs of william hazlitt 1867. A passionate polemicist and radical romantic, william hazlitt was the most. Discover librarianselected research resources on william hazlitt from the questia online library, including fulltext online books, academic journals, magazines.
Doc william hazlitt as literary critic nicholas birns academia. William hazlitts prose style immediately struck me, and even after studying the. Here he replaced the dense, abstruse manner of his philosophical work with the trenchant prose style that was to be the hallmark of his later essays. Hazlitt is regarded as one of the greatest masters of english prose. I decided to post it before it turned into a dang book chapter. List of books and articles about william hazlitt online research. It is to be found in lectures on the english comic writers 1819 and in the plain speaker 1826. Summing up the fruits of education through books, including fiction. Written in a lively style and sparkling with intelligent analysis, wus biography is. His essays are more serious and thoughts are philosophical. 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. Comment on william hazlitt prose style ba english notes.
William hazlitts prose style combines energy and vigor, ease and. His style is concrete, vivid, personal and vigorous. List of books and articles about william hazlitt online. On william hazlitt, ciceronianism, and romanticperiod prose. It is to overcome the flats and sharps of prose that poetry was invented. Hazlitt s works are a valuable handbook to the popular, poetical, and dramatic literature of great britain 1867 and its supplements and four generations of a literary family. The elizabethan writers, the poets and the dramatists of the restoration, prose writers of the eighteenth century and his contemporaries lite wordsworth and coleridge, influenced hazlitt. Tom paulin celebrates william hazlitt, the master of prose and. A master of english prose style, a beautifully modulated general essayist, the.
William hazlitt as literary critic by nicholas birns hazlitt was the closest. From his youth william hazlitt was fond of prose fiction and liked to discuss it. Lacking conscious artistry or literary pretention, his writing is noted for the brilliant intellect it reveals. Hazlitt says that poetry lifts the spirit above the earth and draws the soul out of itself with indescribable longings.
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