Romanticism is where the modern age begins, and Hazlitt was its most articulate spokesman. No one else had the ability to see it whole; no one else knew so many of its politicians, poets, and philosophers. By interpreting it for his contemporaries, he speaks to us of ourselves - of the culture and world we now inhabit. Perhaps the most important development of his time, the creation of a mass media, is one that now dominates our lives. Hazlitt's livelihoo was dependent on it. As the biography argues, he took political sketch-writing to a new level, invented sports commentary as we know it, and created the essay-form as practised by Clive James, Gore Vidal, and Michael Foot. Duncan Wu's profile of one of the greatest journalists in the language draws on over a decade of archival research in libraries across Britain and North America, to reveal for the first time such matters as why Godwin broke with Hazlitt; how Hazlitt came to know Sir John Soane and J. M. W. Turner; the true nature of Hazlitt's dealings with Thomas Medwin, and what the likes of Joseph Farington and Sir Thomas Lawrence thought of him. In addition, it sheds new light on Hazlitt's dealings with such figures as Francis Jeffrey, Robert Stodart, John M'Creery, Henry Crabb Robinson, Joseph Parkes, John Cam Hobhouse, and Stendhal. It benefits also from Wu's New Writings of William Hazlitt, many of which make their appearance here, illuminating hitherto obscure passages of Hazlitt's life.

The Life of Wesley was one of Southey’s most influential and bestselling works. It was the first biography of John Wesley – the major figure in the largest religious movement of the eighteenth century – to be published by anyone beyond the Methodist community. In addition, it was a major history of the rise of a phenomenon that Southey and many others saw as a defining sign of contemporary history – the rise of sectarianism and of religious cults. This two-volume edition will represent the full text of the 1820 edition. It will include a comprehensive critical apparatus that will make sense of the major issues posed by the text and how it contributes to studies of both Southey and Romanticism. The edition will feature a critical and contextual introduction, which will set out the origins and composition of the text together with its publication history, as well as offer a carefully considered view of the interplay between the Life and other biographies of Wesley and accounts of Methodism, bringing into view the wide array of sources and influences Southey drew from. It will also examine the book’s reception history, incorporating material from reviews of the period and detailing the controversy it caused in the Methodist community.