A review by theaurochs
On the Pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt

2.0

A large vocabulary draped over some rather small ideas. A very disappointing entry in the Great Ideas series, which are often a joy to read, or enlightening. I try to find as wide a range of philosophies to read as possible; it does you little good to only read things that you agree with or that align with your worldview. But Hazlitt’s work is barely philosophy- it is at best political rambling. This is not helped by the horrendously verbose nature of his prose. I often got to the end of a paragraph thinking “Well that was nicely written, but what was the actual content there?”- so little is actually expressed, yet so much time is taken to express it. The first essay in this collection, The Fight, spends 26 pages telling the story of Hazlitt going to watch a boxing match; tedious barely begins to cover it.

The title had me very intrigued; On The Pleasure of Hating suggests a philosophical defence of hatred, but we are treated to only a hint of that before being dragged back into mundane anecdotes again. I would genuinely love to read a detailed defence of anger or hatred, that sounds way more interesting.

It’s entirely possible that I’m missing lots of context for this as Hazlitt is often cited as one of the greatest essayists in English. Based on this selection, I’m not at all convinced.