The Spirit of the Age; Or, Contemporary Portraits: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Spirit of the Age; Or, Contemporary Portraits, credited to William Hazlitt, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Spirit of the Age; Or, Contemporary Portraits by William Hazlitt. Read in English by Craig Campbell; Daniel Davison; Kazbek; Shreya Sethi; Garfield Dsouza; Steven Watson; Rolv Robole; jenno; Kat Andrews; weezer; Jesse Zuba; Arden William Hazlitt was a keen observer of his time and the people populating the literary landscape. He presents short monographs on such illustrious persons as Jeremy Bentham, known for his philosophy of utility, William Godwin, who raised the standard of morality above the reach of humanity, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edward Irving, who keeps the public in awe by insulting all their favourite idols, Horne Tooke, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, who wrote Pleasures of Hope,James Mackintosh, appointed Recorder (chief judge) of Bombay in 1804, William Wordsworth, Thomas Malthus, who wrote in answer to Mr. Godwin, William Gifford , who edited The Quarterly Review, Francis Jeffrey, who edited the Edinburgh Review, Henry Brougham, who founded the Edinburgh Review in 1802, Francis Burdett, one of the most pleasing speakers in the House, and is a prodigious favourite of the English people, William Wilberforce, whose first object and principle of action is to do what he thinks right, Robert Southey, the best and most natural prose-writer of any poet of the day, Thomas Moore, who wrote Fables for the Holy Alliance, and Leigh Hunt, we will venture to oppose his Third Canto of the Story of Rimini for classic elegance and natural feeling to any equal number of lines from Mr. Southey's Epics or from Mr. Moore's Lalla Rookh. Charles Lamb wrote Essays of Elia under his pseudonym Elia and Washington Irvine wrote under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon. Hazlitt compares the two in his final essay. - Summary by Craig Campbell

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Spirit of the Age; Or, Contemporary Portraits
• Author credits: William Hazlitt
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 19
• Listed recording duration: 9:04:50

Catalogue topics

• literary criticism
• English literature

Track guide

1. 01 - Jeremy Bentham — 41:23
2. 02 - William Godwin — 40:57
3. 03 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge — 29:50
4. 04 - Edward Irving — 28:09
5. 05 - Horne Tooke — 34:45
6. 06 - Walter Scott — 36:12
7. 07 - Lord Byron — 31:38
8. 08 - Thomas Campbell and George Crabb — 33:10
9. 09 - James Mackintosh — 23:14
10. 10 - William Wordsworth — 28:56
11. 11 - Thomas Malthus — 35:54
12. 12 - William Gifford — 37:37
13. 13 - Francis Jeffrey — 29:19
14. 14 - Henry Brougham and Francis Burdett — 21:51
15. 15 - John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon and William Wilberforce — 23:33
16. 16 - Robert Southey — 24:52
17. 17 - Thomas Moore and Leigh Hunt — 21:42
18. 18 - Elia (Charles Lamb)—Geoffrey Crayon (Washington Irving) — 18:35
19. 19 - James Sheridan Knowles — 3:13

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.