"Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust: hatred alone is immortal"
-William Hazlitt
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Now, Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are. Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers, and each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-drive design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped the world.
William Hazlitt's tough, incisive and combative writings on subjects ranging from slavery to the imagination, boxing matches to the monarchy, established him as one of the greatest radicals of his age and have inspired journalists and political satirists ever since.
The Fight
'- The fight, the fight's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.'
Where there's a will, there's a way - I said to myself, as I walked down Chancery-lane, about half-past six o'clock on Monday the l0th of December, to inquire at Jack Randall's where the fight the next day was to be; and I found 'the proverb' nothing 'musty' in the present instance. I was determined to see this fight, come what would, and see it I did, in great style. It was my first fight, yet it more than answered my expectations. Ladies - it is to you I dedicate this description; nor let it seem out of character for the fair to notice the exploits of the brave. Courage and modesty are the old English virtues; and may they never look cold and askance on one another! Think, ye fairest of the fair, loveliest of the lovely kind, ye practisers of soft enchantment, how many more ye kill with poisoned baits than ever fell in the ring; and listen with subdued air and without shuddering, to a tale tragic only in appearance, and sacred to the FANCY!
William Hazlitt on The Pleasure of Hating
The Fight
The Indian Jugglers
On the Spirit of Monarchy
What is the People?
On Reason and Imagination
On the Pleasure of Hating