William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 - 18 September 1830) was an English writer, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell.He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. Despite his high standing among historians of literature and art, 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,...

The Spirit of the Age: Large Print By William Hazlitt

The collection of essays, Characters of Shakespeare"s Plays, by William Hazlitt discusses exactly what you might think from reading the title. This book from about 1817 tells us what someone who was not just anyone thought of Shakespeare's plays and, most significantly for Hazlitt, those incredibly drawn characters. Hazlitt praised Shakespeare and, in his view, never enough. If the remedial reading of Shakespeare in high school tainted your perceptions of the plays with rote study of lines and characters supplemented with relentless quizing and testing, consider reading this author who,...