Boswell S Life Of Johnson

When it first appeared in 1985, Boswell's Life of Johnson brought together the most recent and most lively assessments of the literary merit and historical accuracy of Boswell's biography. In an invigorating exchange placed at the center of the collection, Donald Greene's description of the Life as a fictionalized biography that screens the real, complex Johnson from view is challenged by Frederick Pottle's defense of Boswell's biographical method, of his sturdy compilation of detail that presents the factual rather than the fictional Johnson. Other essays explore the effect of Johnson's humor on the shaping of his image in the Life, the recent developments in literary criticism and the effect they have had on eighteenth-century studies, and the continuing interest of Boswell's Life as a showcase for members of Johnson's famous circle. The volume concludes with an assessment of the Boswellian problem--of the difficulties the Life presents to readers, scholars, and teachers.

This complete and unabridged edition is the only complete critical edition in paperback. Samuel Johnson was a poet, essayist, dramatist, and pioneering lexicographer, but his continuing reputation depends less on his literary output than on the fortunate accident of finding an idealbiographer in James Boswell. As Johnson's constant and admiring companion, Boswell was able to record not only the outward events of his life, but also the humour, wit, and sturdy common sense of his conversation. His brilliant portrait of a major literary figure of the eighteenth century,enriched by historical and social detail, remains a monument to the art of biography.

Originally published in 1791, this biography of English writer, Samuel Johnson, has been described as the greatest biography ever written. Differing from others in that era, it contained not just a record of Johnson's public life, but instead painted a vivid portrait of him, and included extensive reports of Johnson's conversation. This edition is an abridged version edited by Charles Grosvenor Osgood.Note: there were no chapters in the main body of the text, so I added some arbitrary ones to break the text up a little bit.

First published in 1940, Johnson without Boswell is about Samuel Johnson, the dictator of eighteenth-century English letters. It has become almost axiomatic never to mention that mammoth of wit and wisdom without linking him at least in thought with his great biographer, James Boswell. But there were others who knew him well, and who set down what they knew – among them Johnson himself in his letters and autobiographical fragments, his great friend Mrs. Thale in her Anecdotes, and Sir John Hawkins in his Life. From these and others, excerpted and skilfully pieced together in this volume by Hugh Kingsmill, there emerges a portrait of Johnson more domestic and less alarming than Boswell’s. But something of curmudgeon still, who could terrorise his table-companions by brandishing a knife and bellowing that by God he could eat a bit more. The result is a volume richly readable and informative, which can be read with pleasure either wholly or in part, especially by students of English literature.

In Boswell's "The Life of Samuel Johnson", one of the most gigantic figures of English literature is exposed with unparalleled immediacy and originality. This biography also details Johnson's prolific years in London where he gained popularity as a writer.

In Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson", one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality. While Johnson's Dictionary remains a monument of scholarship, and his essays and criticism command continuing respect, we owe our knowledge of the man himself to this biography. Through a series of wonderfully detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure with a huge appetite for life, crossing swords with other great eighteenth-century luminaries, from Garrick and Goldsmith to Burney and Burke - even his long-suffering friend and disciple James Boswell.Yet Johnson had a vulnerable, even tragic, side and anxieties and obsessions haunted his private hours. Boswell's sensitivity and insight into every facet of his subject's character ultimately make this biography as moving as it is entertaining. Based on the 1799 edition, Christopher Hibbert's abridgement preserves the integrity of the original, while his fascinating introduction sets Boswell's view of Samuel Johnson against that of others of the time.