William Hazlitt, On Being Brilliant: The Spirit of the Age

Abstract

The most intriguing feature of the publication of Germaine de Stael’s De l’Allemagne, coupled with the presence of the author at the launch in London and the reissuing of many of her other works, was the quite surprising number of literary and journalistic responses to the Staelian oeuvre and, especially, Staelian fame theory. Some of the most intense replies came from William Hazlitt, who continued to engage with de Stael’s work directly and obliquely in many articles for newspapers and periodicals, both during her stay in England and after. De l’Allemagne’s publication allowed Hazlitt not only to profit from another review, but also to benefit his own productivity. De Stael’s work provided the ideal opportunity for Hazlitt to print the as yet unpublished lectures he had given on metaphysics in 1812. As a consequence, after a general review of the work for the Morning Chronicle in November 1813, Hazlitt proceeded to publish four more essays between February and April 1814 in the same paper. Although entitled ‘Madame de Stael’s Account of German Philosophy’, Hazlitt published his own work, making only cursory glances at the original text, covering the writings of Hobbes, Locke, Hartley, Helvetius and others.