Overview

Everyday wisdom, eloquent and exact. Sayings that shaped everyday speech. William Carew Hazlitt's English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases gathers centuries of spoken wisdom from nineteenth century England into a single, alphabetically arranged and annotated sayings book. Equal parts English proverbs collection and proverb anthology, Hazlitt's volume records variants, attributions and contexts so that each maxim is presented with clarity and purpose. The annotations are concise yet illuminating, turning what could be mere curios into a traditional maxims guide that exposes the origins and social life of classic English idioms. Useful at a glance, its structure makes the work a dependable reference for writers, an excellent language learners resource for idiom and register, and a satisfying browse for anyone drawn to British folk wisdom. His annotations, compact but authoritative, point to oral variants and printed precedents so readers can trace a phrase's journey from folk speech into print. Organised alphabetically for quick lookup yet rich in cross-reference, the volume serves both as daily reference and as a curatorial record of idiom. The prose is readable and often wry, appealing to casual browsers as much as to the study-minded. Beyond immediate utility, the text carries historical weight: it captures the tone, humour and moral assumptions of Victorian era sayings and offers a window onto nineteenth century England. In scholarship and on the bookshelf it sits comfortably with the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations as a practical companion for editors, translators, historians and curious readers. Casual readers will delight in familiar turns of phrase and surprising variants; classic-literature collectors will prize the provenance and rigour of Hazlitt's notes. Archivists and teachers find the cross-references and variants especially useful when reconstructing period speech. It is as handy for citation as it is for quiet enjoyment. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint - a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

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