The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)

William Hazlitt was the great contrarian of English criticism, a man who brought fire and feeling to the essay form. This sixth volume gathers his "Table Talk" essays alongside penetrating conversations with the painter James Northcote, creating a portrait of an artist and thinker at the height of his powers. Here you will find Hazlitt on the paintings that moved him, on what it means to truly see, on the relationship between art and moral feeling. The essays crackle with his characteristic conviction: that beauty is worth defending, that criticism requires courage, that to write well is to live dangerously. Hazlitt's prose demands a certain intensity from its readers. These are not essays to skim but to inhabit, each one a philosophical inquiry disguised as casual conversation. For anyone who believes that criticism is itself a creative act, that seeing deeply is a form of wisdom, this volume offers page after page of provocation and pleasure.