Romanticism is where the modern age begins, and Hazlitt was its most articulate spokesman. No one else had the ability to see it whole; no one else knew so many of its politicians, poets, and philosophers. By interpreting it for his contemporaries, he speaks to us of ourselves - of the culture and world we now inhabit. Perhaps the most important development of his time, the creation of a mass media, is one that now dominates our lives. Hazlitt's livelihoo was dependent on it. As the biography argues, he took political sketch-writing to a new level, invented sports commentary as we know it, and created the essay-form as practised by Clive James, Gore Vidal, and Michael Foot. Duncan Wu's profile of one of the greatest journalists in the language draws on over a decade of archival research in libraries across Britain and North America, to reveal for the first time such matters as why Godwin broke with Hazlitt; how Hazlitt came to know Sir John Soane and J. M. W. Turner; the true nature of Hazlitt's dealings with Thomas Medwin, and what the likes of Joseph Farington and Sir Thomas Lawrence thought of him. In addition, it sheds new light on Hazlitt's dealings with such figures as Francis Jeffrey, Robert Stodart, John M'Creery, Henry Crabb Robinson, Joseph Parkes, John Cam Hobhouse, and Stendhal. It benefits also from Wu's New Writings of William Hazlitt, many of which make their appearance here, illuminating hitherto obscure passages of Hazlitt's life.

About the Author
Duncan Wu is Professor of English at Georgetown University Washington DC. He is a former Fellow of St Catherine's College and Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. His previous books include Wordsworth: An Inner Life (2000), and Romanticism: An Anthology, a standard text now in its third edition. He is the editor of Selected Writings of William Hazlitt (9 vols, 1998), William Hazlitt, The Plain Speaker: Key Essays (1998), (with Tom Paulin and Uttara Natarajan) Metaphysical Hazlitt: Bicentenary Essays (2005), and New Writings of William Hazlitt (2007).

Reviews
This biography is a fluent and impassioned defence of Hazlitt against his detractors. * Ronan McDonald, The Observer *
A winning combination of scholarly rigour and narrative panache. * The Independent on Sunday. Jonathan Wright. *
This is a tanalising and revealing picture of William Hazlitt. * Irish Times. Anne Haverty. *
Wu's detective work generally provides dividends...the biography gives us an excellent sense of the range of Hazlitt's commitment and contacts. * London Review of Books, Matthew Bevis *
Wu is the foremost authority on Hazlitt and makes a worthwhile case for Hazlitt as an essayist very much superior to Lamb and De Quincey. * The Times *
A much needed concise, clear and readable account. * Sarah Burton Matthew, The Independent *
I greatly enjoyed this major new biography... an exceptional study. * Times Higher Education *
'plenty to savour' * LRB *
Wu's biography is, like its subject, passionately partisan. * Sunday Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199549580
Author Duncan Wu
Format Hardback
Page Count 594
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 164mm * 34mm