A Family Affair: Michel de Montaigne Meets William Hazlitt & Son

Abstract

This paper aims at illuminating a very interesting cultural-mediation case that involved Romantic essayist William Hazlitt and his son, also named William. The linking point was constituted by Michel de Montaigne’s Essais, which, for William Hazlitt Sr., had represented a source of inspiration to fashion his own kind of modern essay. Hazlitt Jr., on his part, committed himself to editing a volume of Montaigne’s Complete Works, where he managed to provide a nuanced profile of the French author to an audience who had already become familiar with him via his father. Such an example was to have many followers and imitators.