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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 408 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 408 pagesAbout this book
What makes good company, clear thinking, or a walk alone worth more than a room full of clever talk?
In Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners, William Hazlitt turns everyday pleasures and human weaknesses into lively questions. His short essays move through painting, travel, learning, politics and conversation. He values good books and skilled hands, but has little patience for pretence. His plain, quick voice feels like a friend speaking across the table.
On Familiar Style asks why careful, plain words matter. On Going a Journey takes pleasure in the road, hedges and a plain inn. On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth explores the young person's sense that death cannot touch them. Across these pieces, Hazlitt follows each thought where it leads, bringing strong opinions to experiences you can recognise.
What you’ll discover
- Words without pretence Discover Hazlitt's case for writing that sounds like speech, with plain words chosen carefully.
- Room for your thoughts Walk alone with On Going a Journey, where solitude makes space for thought and pleasure.
- Youth meets time Consider why the young find it so hard to believe their lives will end.
- Colour and craft On the Pleasure of Painting finds happiness in mixing colour and watching a likeness grow.
- Certainty over coffee Meet the confident news-debaters of On Coffee-house Politicians through Hazlitt's sharp eye for human weakness.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love lively essays, sharp portraits of real people, and thoughts on art, books, fame, memory, and character, all in a warm, argumentative voice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Painting brings peace through honest work
- Practice deepens the pleasure of art
- The past deserves our attention
- Feeling can judge before reason explains
- Genius discovers rather than merely stores
- Tested skill keeps achievement honest
- Knowledge needs life beyond books
- Public praise often follows fear
- Solitude gives the present room
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Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
by William Hazlitt · 1821
A painter, a fives player and a spy's passing face show Hazlitt how the mind knows more than it can say.
Challenging10–20 hours to read20 languages
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“I am never less alone than when I am alone.”
In short
Why does a stranger's face, glimpsed for a second through an inn window, ruin a man's breakfast before he even knows who the stranger is? William Hazlitt tells this small story in Table Talk.
Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners at a glance
- Reading time
- About 10 h 25 min8 h 15 min fast, 12 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 148,600 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1821by William Hazlitt
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Painting brings a peace that writing cannot
Hazlitt opens the book with a confession. He takes little pleasure in writing his essays, but deep pleasure in painting. In writing, you contend with the world. In painting, you carry on a friendly struggle with Nature.
At the easel, no angry passion shakes the hand. There is no opponent to crush and no fool to annoy. You study a plant, a tree stump, or a stain on an old wall, and every minute teaches you something. When he paints, he turns names into things, and the eye tests the hand at once, so self-love cannot hide a fault.
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A painter, a fives player and a spy's passing face show Hazlitt how the mind knows more than it can say.
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Details
- First published
- 1821
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 408 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 408 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 716 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 716 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Tue 1 Dec to Mon 7 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Hazlitt, William. Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/table-talk-essays-on-men-and-manners.
Hazlitt, W. (2026). Table talk: Essays on men and manners. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/table-talk-essays-on-men-and-manners (Original work published 1821)
Hazlitt, William. Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/table-talk-essays-on-men-and-manners.
@book{hazlitt2026table,
author = {Hazlitt, William},
title = {Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/table-talk-essays-on-men-and-manners},
note = {First published 1821}
}
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What is Table Talk by William Hazlitt about?
It is a collection of essays on painting, genius, common sense, the past, fame, patronage, character, solitude, and death. Hazlitt explains each idea through examples from his own life, from artists, writers, and the people he meets.
Who was William Hazlitt?
Hazlitt was an English essayist and critic who died in 1830. He began as a painter, became a famous writer on Shakespeare, the theatre, and politics, and shaped the personal essay with his frank, vivid voice.
What does Hazlitt say about genius and common sense?
He argues that genius is a new kind of power that sees nature differently from others, yet truly. Common sense, he says, is the sum of countless unspoken impressions from experience, and it works best with reason.
The author
William Hazlitt
1778–1830 · English essayist and critic
William Hazlitt was an English essayist and critic, born in Maidstone in 1778. He lived in London and died there in 1830. He wrote about literature, art, politics, and the theatre. His books include Lectures on the English Poets, published in 1818, and Table Talk, published in 1821 and 1822.
“I am never less alone than when I am alone.”
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