Present Based On Books The Life of Samuel Johnson
Title | : | The Life of Samuel Johnson |
Author | : | James Boswell |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 1344 pages |
Published | : | January 11th 1993 by Everyman's Library (first published 1790) |
Categories | : | Biography. Classics. Nonfiction. History. Literature. 18th Century |
Representaion Concering Books The Life of Samuel Johnson
Poet, lexicographer, critic, moralist and Great Cham, Dr. Johnson had in his friend Boswell the ideal biographer.Notoriously and self-confessedly intemperate, Boswell shared with Johnson a huge appetite for life and threw equal energy into recording its every aspect in minute but telling detail. This irrepressible Scotsman was 'always studying human nature and making experiments', and the marvelously vivacious Journals he wrote daily furnished him with first-rate material when he came to write his biography.
The result is a masterpiece that brims over with wit, anecdote and originality. Hailed by Macaulay as the best biography ever written and by Carlyle as a book 'beyond any other product of the eighteenth century', The Life of Samuel Johnson today continues to enjoy its status as a classic of the language.
This shortened version is based on the 1799 edition, the last in which the author had a hand.
Define Books To The Life of Samuel Johnson
Original Title: | The Life of Samuel Johnson |
ISBN: | 0679417176 (ISBN13: 9780679417170) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | Samuel Johnson, James Boswell |
Setting: | United Kingdom,1770 |
Rating Based On Books The Life of Samuel Johnson
Ratings: 3.92 From 3067 Users | 234 ReviewsAssess Based On Books The Life of Samuel Johnson
This is a book I've had on my list for thirty years and always balked at because it seemed to be a hodge-podge of a biography, all the material for a biography thrown together and hardly edited at all. How can an unedited life be compelling? Turns out it IS compelling precisely because it is such a slightly ordered regurgitation of whatever Boswell had at hand. Listen to Johnson discourse on everything that mattered to him, everything that mattered in the age--Slavery, America, Salvation, feari've read half this book so far and, as with all terribly good, terribly long books that you don't rush through in one go, it's comforting to know that it's at home waiting for me. i'm looking forward to when i can open it up where i left off when life wasn't quite as crazy as it is now and continue giggling at boswell's madness. although the book is titled 'the life of samuel johnson', i am going to need to get a proper biography of the great doctor because i am completely distracted by boswell
This is a book which is not about a thing but is the thing itself. I think theres a complicated German philosophical term for that. In the history books they will tell you Samuel Johnson is dead these 200 years, but I say No Sir. Hes alive, here, right here. Hes walking and talking and wringing the necks of fools right here.In this books oceanic vastness of pages Boswell the drunk, the fool, the butt of japes, the ignoble toady, creates the reality tv of 18th century London. There are verbatim
When you major in what is called "English" at college, certain inconvenient figures present themselves. One is Ben Jonson who is inconvenient because it is so much more rewarding and taxing to spend your time on Shakespeare, although Jonson also was a major dramatist during Shakespeare's day.Another inconvenient figure is William Blake, the poet often grouped with the "Romantics," but clearly not one of them and a study unto himself, sui generis, one of a kind. If you're going to study Blake,
Actually, I dip in and out of this one (over 30 years!) and I find it delightful & very funny.
Boswells Life of Johnson is one of the most famous biographies in the English language. Its subject is one of the most celebrated English men of letters. But oddly, a reader of this lengthy encomium might come away wondering exactly why Johnson is so celebrated.In fact, it is a stretch to call this a biography at all. It does not paint a complete portrait of Johnson by any means. It does little to explicate his works or put them in the context of his life. What it does, is provide long
Perhaps there is no greater indication of encroaching dotage than the excitement I feel towards the prospect of devouring Boswell's Life of Johnson.
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