"'Essays' is perhaps too solemn a word to describe the pieces in this volume of political and personal commentary. Politically Hazlitt belonged to a party of one, which makes his journalism diverting, unexpected, and occasionally devastating. He deals with political subjects and figures (Chatham, Burke, Fox, Pitt), and with literary personalities (Coleridge, Malthus, Southey). There are vigorous reviews of such works of immediate social and intellectual importance as Robert Owen's New view of society. There are articles on topics of perennial interest such as the spy-system. He provides a unique perspective on his contemporaries and his times: there is no other prose writer of the age of such compelling readability."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved