This long awaited biography, the result of twenty-five years of research, is the most significant portrayal of Hazlitt to appear in almost seventy years. Hazlitt's image has always been filtered through biographies of the major writers and poets with whom he associated, leaving only a partial picture, and in many cases a distorted one. This insightful biography reveals Hazlitt as a man almost incapacitated by his own diffidence, passionate yet shy in his relationships with women, a warm and generous friend, a doting father, and an incorruptible critic unwilling to observe conventional social constraints when delivering his opinions. New and relevant details from contemporary newspapers, as well as from letters and personal documents, flesh out many shadowy figures in Hazlitt's life, particularly his great love, Sarah Walker, and Isabella Bridgewater, his second wife. Providing a wealth of exact information, and previously unknown facts, this biography presents for the first time a rounded yet subtle portrait of one of the most important figures of the Romantic period.