1. Lifespan, Birth/Death Details & Nationality
Full Name: William Hazlitt
Born: 10 April 1778, Maidstone, Kent, England
Died: 18 September 1830, Soho, London, England
Nationality: British (English)
2. Contemporaries (with Detail)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Early mentor and influence; later estranged over politics and philosophy.
William Wordsworth: Hazlitt admired his early poetry but criticised his later conservatism.
Charles Lamb: Close friend; deeply respected for Lamb’s warmth and intellect.
Leigh Hunt: Fellow critic and radical; both supported liberal causes.
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Praised Shelley’s idealism and revolutionary poetry.
Lord Byron: Admired Byron’s passion and wit; saw him as a poetic force.
John Keats: Strong supporter; wrote eloquently in his defence against critics.
3. Titles (All Known As) – Awards
Known As:
“Critic of Genius”
“Master of English Prose Style”
“Father of English Literary Criticism”
Recognition:
No official awards, but posthumously recognised as a major Romantic-era essayist and critic
Revered for shaping the modern personal essay and cultural criticism
4. Key Themes in His Works
Individual perception and the power of imagination
Intellectual liberty, democracy, and political freedom
Disillusionment with authority and hypocrisy
Admiration for great minds and artists (Shakespeare, Milton, Burke, Rousseau)
Conflict between idealism and reality
Subjectivity and self-analysis in prose
Art as a mirror of human passion and struggle
5. Family Background
Father: Reverend William Hazlitt – a Unitarian minister and political radical
Mother: Grace Loftus Hazlitt – from an Irish Protestant family
Grew up in a liberal, intellectual household with strong religious dissenting values
His older brother, John Hazlit, was a noted miniature portrait painter
6. Education
Studied at the Unitarian New College, Hackney
Initially pursued painting and studied under Joshua Reynolds
Left formal education and turned to philosophy and literature
Lifelong learner with broad reading in classics, art, philosophy, and politics
7. Important Life Events
1798: Met Coleridge and Wordsworth; inspired to become a writer
1805–1812: Gave philosophical lectures and wrote on metaphysics
1813: Married Sarah Stoddart; later separated
1817–1825: Wrote his greatest essays and criticism, including Characters of Shakespeare's Plays and Table Talk
1822: Love affair with Sarah Walker, which devastated him emotionally
1830: Died in poverty and relative obscurity, but his critical legacy flourished posthumously
8. Criticism – By & Against Him
Admired by:
Charles Lamb, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Harold Bloom
Seen as a model of personal essay writing and sharp literary criticism
Criticised by:
Tory critics who disliked his radicalism
Accused of being too combative, bitter, and egoistic in tone
Modern View:
Seen as a pioneer of contemporary essayism
