The Life of Samuel JohnsonPenguin UK, 2008 M10 30 - 1312 pages 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. |
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... favour me with a single letter for more than two years'), in 1767 ('I received no letter from Johnson this year'), in 1770 ('a total cessation of all correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me'), in 1778, and in 1784.46 Doubtless some of ...
... favour me with communications and advice in the conduct of my Work. But I cannot sufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend Mr. Malone, who was so good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole of my manuscript, and make ...
... Favour of the Reverend Dr. Dodd. acknowl. 1780. Advertisement for his Friend Mr. Thrale to the Worthy Electors of the Borough of Southwark. acknowl. The first Paragraph of Mr. Thomas Davies's Life of Garrick, acknowl. 1781. Prefaces ...
James Boswell David Womersley. acknowl. Argument in favour of Joseph Knight, an African Negro, who claimed his Liberty ... favour the world with them. JAMES BOSWELL. 'No other speaker of my living actions, 'To keep mine. 'After my death I ...
... favour of Mr. Wentworth, son of one of his masters, and of Mr. Hector, his school-fellow and friend; from which I select the following specimens: Translation of VIRGIL. Pastoral I.24 MELIBŒUS. Now, Tityrus, you, supine and careless laid ...