Assignment No.

02
Subject: History of English Literature

Topic: Critical Essay in Romantic Period

Submitted By:

Kanwal Saif

Roll No: 160649

Semester: BS-English 4thSemester

Submitted to:
Submitted to:
Sir Waqar

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ISLAMIA COLLEGE PESHAWAR
April 10, 2018
Though the Romantic period specialized in poetry, there also appeared a few
prose-writers- rather more concerned with subject matter and emotional expression
than with appropriate style. They wrote for an ever-increasing audience which was
less homogeneous in its interest and education than that of their predecessors.
Lamb, Hazlitt and De Quincey who rank very high. Whereas many eighteenth
century prose-writers depended on assumptions about the suitability of various
prose styles for various purposes which they shared with their relatively small but
sophisticated public; writers in the Romantic period were

The early 19th century is remarkable for the development of a new and
valuable type of critical prose writing. The leaders in this new and important
development are William Hazlitt, De Quincy and Charles Lamb. These prose
writers were much influenced by the French Revolution in politics and by the
Romantic Movement in literature. They freely expressed their own personality
in their writings.

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834):

Lamb was born and lived in the midst of the London streets. The city
crowd with its pleasures and occupations, its endless little comedies and tragedies,
alone interested him. According to his own account, when he paused in the
crowded street tears would spring to his eyes,—tears of pure pleasure at the
abundance of so much good life; and when he wrote, he simply interpreted that
crowded human life of joy and sorrow, as Wordsworth interpreted the woods and
waters, without any desire to change or reform them.

Lamb’s Essays:
Charles Lamb’s essays are intensely personal. They are an excellent
picture of Lamb and humanity. His essays are marked by relaxed style,
conversational tone and wide range of subject matter. Charles Lamb gave English
Essay the same kind of turn that Wordsworth gave to English poetry. Unlike
Addison and Steele, who largely devoted the essay to instruct on social morals and
manners, Lamb concentrated on emotions rather than ideas or morals and manners.
Of all our English essayists he is the most lovable; partly because of his delicate,
old-fashioned style and humor, but more because of that cheery and heroic struggle
against misfortune which shines like a subdued light in all his writings.
 His important essays are “Christ’s Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago”.
“The Two Races of Man”, New Year’s Eve”, “My Relations”, “ Essays of Elia”
and “ Last Essays of Elia”.

 WILLIAM HAZLITT(1778-1830):
As a personality Hazlitt was just the opposite of Lamb. He was a man of
violent temper, with strong likes and dislikes. In his judgment of others he was
always downright and frank, and never cared for its effect on them. In popularity,
he was no less than Lamb but was more intellectual than emotional. He was both
essayist and critic.
Style:
The style of Hazlitt has force, brightness and individuality. Here and there we
find passages of solemn and stately music. It is the reflection of Hazlitt’s
personality—outspoken, straightforward and frank. As he had read widely, and his
mind was filled with great store of learning, his writings are interspersed with
sentences and phrases from other writers and there are also echoes of their style.
Above all, it vibrates with the vitality and force of his personality, and so never
lapses into dullness.

Works:

“The Spirit of the Age”; or “Contemporary Portraits” is generally considered

his best work.

 THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859):

He was also one of the most important prose writers of
Romantic Age. He was profoundly educated and was one of the keenest
intellects of the age. Among the essayists, he was the most uncanny and
incomprehensible. De Quincy was a highly intellectual writer and his
interests were very wide. Mostly he wrote in the form of articles for journals
and he dealt with all sorts of subjects—about himself and his friends, life in
general, art, literature, philosophy and religion.
Style:
The specialty of his style consists in describing incidents of purely
personal interest in language suited to their magnitude as they appear in the
eyes of the writer. The reader is irresistibly attracted by the splendor of his
style which combines the best elements of prose and poetry. In fact his prose
works are more imaginative and melodious than many poetical works. There
is revealed in them the beauty of the English language.
Critical Works:
Among the best of his brilliant critical essays are knocking at the
Gate in Macbeth (1823) , which is admirably suited to show the man’s
critical genius, and Murder Considered as one of the fine Arts (1827),
which reveals his grotesque humor. Other suggestive critical works are his
Letters to a Young Man (1823), Joan of Arc (1847), and The English Mail-
Coach (1849).