On Reading Old Books

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) is an English writer, drama
and literary critic, painter, social commentator, a journalist, a lecturer, an idealist
and an essayist. He is considered one of the greatest critics and essayists of the
Romantic Period.

Hazlitt’s “On Reading of Old Books” was first published in New Monthly
magazine. In the essay, Hazlitt tells us that he had a preference for books written
by authors of the past and that he did not like to go through the books written by
the authors of his own time. He also gives us his reason for this preference. He
then goes on to name authors and their works which he had enjoyed reading some
of these works transported him to the days of his childhood and, therefore, enabled
him to look at the world once again with the eyes of a child.

Hazlitt hates to read new books and therefore has a scanty collection of books-
about twenty to thirty volumes in his personal library. He needs time to decide on
reading new books. It is after a long time that he sat down to read Tales of My
Landlord and added to his personal library. Unlike the ladies who judge the book
by its cover or newness, Hazlitt prefers old books.

Reading Old books do not have the burden of knowing the writers personally, or
agreeing or disagreeing with them on contemporary issues. They also provide a
window on to the past, not just in a substantive, historical sense, but gave a sense
of how the past thought, its mentality, which can be as soothing and reorienting as
momentarily stepping into a different climate.

He goes on to compare books to dishes. Old books are like old / familiar dish- you
know what is to expect and is confident that it will be good. New books, he says,
are like “a strange dish”: “There is a want of confidence and security to second
appetite.” An old book, on the other hand, is the trusted plain slice at the pizza
corner, the burger and fries from your local pub, or a tasty home-baked quiche
from a well-tried recipe: you know what you’re in for, and you know it’s going to
be delicious. Of course, with old books, you get the additional advantage that, like
an old and trusted friend, you can always learn something new. And you can take
your time, too, without having to worry about rushing to the end; you can linger, or
skip and skim, for you’ve been there already.

Reading an old book also gives the benefit of recalling the past. Like the
Fortunatas’ Wishing Cap, it transports a reader not only across the globe but to the
past and relives the childhood memories once again. Hazlitt, for example, recounts
the delight he experienced when he received Cooke’s pocket edition of Tom Jones,
and sniffs at the cheap novels from the Ballantyne brothers or the Minerva Press.
Cooke’s Tom Jones, he remembers, “broke the spell”, and “Cooke’s edition of the
‘British Novelists’ was to him a dance through life, a perpetual gala-day.
Sometimes even the name of the book seen in a book store or library is enough not
only to recall the content of the book but also the memories associated with it. For
instance he could vividly recall the day when he first read the book, the place
where he read it, the people he met on that day and the feeling of “the air, the field
and the sky.”

He then goes on to name authors and their works which he had enjoyed reading
some of these works transported him to the days of his childhood and, therefore,
enabled him to look at the world once again with the eyes of a child. He also gives
us briefly the reasons why he particularly enjoyed these works. In this connection,
he names certain works written by Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias
Smollett, and Rousseau. At the end of the essay, he names those works which he
would have liked to read but which he has not been able to read.

Hazlitt says that there are other authors whose works he has never read but whom
he would certainly have liked to read. Among these works are Lord Clarendon's
History of the Grand Rebellin, Froissart's Chronicles, and Fuller's Worthies. He
intends to read all the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, having already read a few
of them. He would like to read the speeches in Thucydides and Don Quixote in the
original (that is, in the Spanish Language in which Cervantes wrote it).