''Table-Talk'' is a collection of essays by the English cultural critic and social commentator
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, 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 lan ...
. It was originally published as two volumes, the first of which appeared in April 1821.
[Bate 2004.] The essays deal with topics such as art, literature and philosophy.
Duncan Wu
Duncan Wu (born 3 November 1961 in Woking, Surrey) is a British academic and biographer.
Biography
Wu received his D.Phil from Oxford University. From 2000-2008, he was Professor of English Language and Literature at St Catherine's College, ...
has described the essays as the "pinnacle of
azlitt'sachievement", and argues that ''Table-Talk'' and ''
The Plain Speaker'' (1826) represent Hazlitt's masterpiece.
Background
Hazlitt published his first book, a work of philosophy, in 1805. In the years between his authorial debut and the publication of ''Table-Talk'', Hazlitt was employed as a journalist, critic and lecturer, and published several collections of writing on topics such as
Shakespearean criticism, politics and literature.
[ In 1819, following the hostile reception of his '' Political Essays'' by the Tory press and the repressive legislation introduced after the ]Peterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...
, Hazlitt foreswore writing further essays on political subjects. Political insight is by no means absent from Hazlitt's subsequent works, and publications such as '' The Spirit of the Age'' (1825) condemn figures such as Robert Southey
Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
for their abandonment of political radicalism, while Hazlitt's biography of Napoleon (four volumes; 1828–1830) aimed to defend his reputation against a biography from the Tory Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
.
Hazlitt's first wife, Sarah Stoddart, owned property in Winterslow
Winterslow is a civil parish with a population of around 2,000, about northeast of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, and lying south of the A30 London Road. It is sited on the Roman road between Old Sarum and Winchester.
Settlements in the par ...
, a village in Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. Hazlitt regularly travelled from London to the village, and was particularly fond of staying at Winterslow Hut
Winterslow Hut was a late 17th-century coaching inn on the London to Exeter stagecoach route at Winterslow, Wiltshire, England. Its isolated location on Salisbury Plain between Salisbury and Andover, with a spring close by, made it a useful res ...
, an inn, where he could write in peace. Many of the ''Table-Talk'' essays were composed there. The second volume was completed on 7 March 1822 at Renton Inn, near Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
.
Content
An example of Hazlitt's style is provided by the first essay in the volume, entitled "On the Pleasure of Painting". The piece was originally intended to be a reflection on the life of Hazlitt's father, who died in 1820. However, it grew into an account of Hazlitt's views on the nature of art and the mental satisfaction to be derived from painting. It concludes with a deeply personal account of an occasion when Hazlitt painted his father's portrait in the Unitarian chapel at Wem, Shropshire. The use of the pronoun "I" here, along with the personal subject matter, is indicative of Hazlitt's mastery of the familiar essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a short ...
.
Another essay in the volume, "The Indian Jugglers", is often included in anthologies of Hazlitt's writings. After philosophically musing on the nature of greatness and genius, Hazlitt concludes the essay with a reprise of his obituary of John Cavanagh, a noted fives
Fives is an English sport believed to derive from the same origins as many racquet sports. In fives, a ball is propelled against the walls of a 3- or 4-sided special court, using a gloved or bare hand as though it were a racquet, similar to ...
player who died in 1819.
Reception
For some years, Hazlitt's work had been routinely attacked by Tory critics, particularly those associated with ''Blackwood's Magazine
''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 1817 ...
'' and the ''Quarterly Review
The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River ...
''. The reception of the first volume of ''Table-Talk'' by the Tory journals was, unsurprisingly, negative.[Wu 2008, p. 296.] Leigh Hunt
James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet.
Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centr ...
, an erstwhile friend of Hazlitt, was extremely offended by the fact that he had been included in Hazlitt's essay titled "On People with One Idea".[Quoted in Wu 2008, p. 323.]
Notes
References
* nonymous ''The Quarterly Review''. "Art. V. – Table-Talk, or Original Essays“. By William Hazlitt. London. 1821. London: John Murray, 1822, pp. 103–21.
* Bate, Jonathan (2004). 'Hazlitt, William (1778–1830), writer and painter', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Grayling, A.C. (2000). ''The Quarrel of the Age: The Life and Times of William Hazlitt''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
* Jones, Stanley (1989). ''Hazlitt: A Life from Winterslow to Frith Street''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Paulin, Tom (1998). ''The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style''. London: Faber and Faber. .
* Wu, Duncan (2008). ''William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
External links
*
First edition of Volume 1
on Archive.org
Volume 2
uploaded elsewhere on Wikipedia
Wikisource copy
with both Volume 1 and Volume 2
*
{{Authority control
Books by William Hazlitt
1821 books