A select Hazlitt bibliography

Duncan Wu

Editions

P.P. Howe (ed.), The Complete Works of William Hazlitt. 21 vols. London: Dent, 1930-4
This is the edition of choice for anyone seriously interested in Hazlitt. It contains texts of all the full-length volumes now attributed to him, and Howe’s annotations are still helpful (although they’re keyed to outdated editions, and contain some errors). The likelihood is that if you have access to this, it will probably be through a library; if you wish to acquire one, you’ll find that its price hasn’t declined with time: on the second-hand market, it’s not unknown for copies to sell for £2000. It has to be said that Howe’s edition isn’t quite ‘complete’; there are a number of essays that he doesn’t include here, and the type is quite small. If what you need is a good selected works that includes most of the book-length texts, see next entry.

Duncan Wu (ed.), The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt. 9 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto, 1998
This nine-volume edition updates Howe’s texts (which are riddled with errors), and his annotations, incorporating the scholarship of the seven decades since the appearance of Howe. Along with newly-edited texts of the major book-length works, it includes two hitherto unpublished essays (edited from manuscript). It includes an important introductory essay by Tom Paulin. For more information, go to http://www.pickeringchatto.com/hazlitt.htm

Jon Cook (ed.), William Hazlitt: Selected Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 (World’s Classics)
This is an excellent one-volume paperback selection, which divides its contents under subject headings such as ‘Politics’, ‘Culture’, ‘The Self’, ‘Heroes’, and ‘Art and Literature’. Cook provides a useful introduction, and helpful annotations. For further details go to .http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-283800-8

Tom Paulin and David Chandler (eds.), William Hazlitt: The Fight and Other Writings. London: Penguin, 1998 (Penguin Classics)
Another excellent one-volume selection, longer than Cook’s, with an introduction by Tom Paulin and some informative annotations by Chandler. For further details go to http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,10_0140436138,00.html

Duncan Wu (ed.), The Plain Speaker: The Key Essays. With an introduction by Tom Paulin. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998
Excellent paperback selection from one of Hazlitt’s most important works. Includes such important works as ‘On the Prose Style of Poets’, ‘On the Conversation of Authors’, ‘On Reason and Imagination’, and ‘On the Pleasure of Hating’. In addition it contains John Hamilton Reynolds’ hitherto unpublished description of Hazlitt and a newly-discovered essay, ‘A Half-Length’. For further details go to http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=0631210571&site=1

William Hazlitt, The Spirit of the Age. Grasmere: The Wordsworth Trust, 2004
This appears to be the only paperback edition of Hazlitt’s greatest work currently in print. It is lavishly illustrated with portraits of the various people described by Hazlitt, and is prefaced with an essay by Robert Woof, director of the Wordsworth Trust. Available only through the Wordsworth Trust; go to http://www.wordsworth.org.uk/Default.asp?page=14

William Hazlitt, On the Pleasure of Hating. London: Penguin, 2004
This appears to be a selection of a selection, being drawn from William Hazlitt: The Fight and Other Writings ed. Paulin and Chandler (see above). As such, it’s perfectly fine, and contains ‘The Fight’, ‘The Indian Jugglers’, ‘On the Spirit of Monarchy’, ‘What is the People?’, ‘On Reason and Imagination’, and ‘On the Pleasure of Hating’. That may be just enough to divert you on your next train journey, but for not much more you could buy the complete Paulin and Chandler and have a good deal more book for your money. For neophytes only.

Duncan Wu (ed.), Genuine Fire: New Writings of William Hazlitt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming
This is a collection of 205 newly-discovered essays by Hazlitt, including major essays on the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, a defence of Byron and Shelley from accusations of indecency, an analysis of the three trials of the Regency publisher and writer William Hone, and a series of reminiscences and anecdotes from his last years.