BBC Radio 4 „Great Lives“: William Hazlitt

„Actor, come­di­an and Author Ben Miller dis­cuss­es the colour­ful, com­pli­cat­ed and uncom­pro­mis­ing life of William Hazlitt.
Born in 1778 William Hazlitt is con­sid­ered one of the great­est crit­ics and essay­ists in the his­to­ry of the Eng­lish lan­guage, but for cen­turies, his life and works were lost in the shad­ows. He was an advo­cate of uni­ver­sal rights and civ­il lib­er­ties, and a fierce oppo­nent of pomp and pow­er. He railed against slav­ery, believed strong­ly in the pow­er of the imag­i­na­tion, and said, ‚The love of lib­er­ty is the love of oth­ers; the love of pow­er is the love of our­selves‘.
But he was­n’t with­out his own demons and fell out of pub­lic favour. Rumours of gam­bling, sex addic­tion and adul­tery chal­lenged his rep­u­ta­tion. In recent years schol­ars have debat­ed his life and works and a renewed inter­est in his essays has emerged.
Ben Miller plays Lord Feath­er­ing­ton in Bridger­ton, and he wrote and starred in The Arm­strong and Miller Show on Chan­nel Four.
With expert con­tri­bu­tions from Dr Uttara Natara­gen, a found­ing organ­is­er of The Hazlitt Soci­ety and edi­tor of The Hazlitt Review. Pre­sent­ed by Matthew Par­ris“ (BBC)

Sie kön­nen die Sendung, die im Mia 2021 in der Rei­he „Great Lives“ lief, über die Seite der BBC nach­hören oder als Audio­datei herun­ter­laden.