William Hazlitt (1778-1830) is widely regarded as one of the greatest essayists in the English language, known for his art and literary criticism and his radical political commentary. Also an accomplished painter, Hazlitt befriended many other prominent nineteenth-century figures during his life, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, John Keats, and Stendhal. Among his most admired works are the collections Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, Table-Talk, and The Spirit of the Age.

David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. His books include Hazlitt: The Mind of a Critic, Disowned by Memory: Wordsworth's Poetry of the 1790s, The Intellectual Career of Edmund Burke, and, most recently, American Breakdown: The Trump Years and How They Befell Us. He edited the anthology Writing Politics for NYRB Classics in 2020.