Samuel Johnson: The Life of an AuthorHarvard University Press, 2009 M07 1 - 384 pages He was a servant to the public, a writer for hire. He was a hero, an author adding to the glory of his nation. But can a writer be both hack and hero? The career of Samuel Johnson, recounted here by Lawrence Lipking, proves that the two can be one. And it further proves, in its enduring interest for readers, that academic fashions today may be a bit hasty in pronouncing the "death of the author." |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 91
... human interest of John Wain's Samuel Johnson ( 1974 ) , and the psy- chological depth of W. Jackson Bate's Samuel Johnson ( 1977 ) . More recently , Robert DeMaria Jr. , in The Life of Samuel Johnson ( 1993 ) , has surveyed the literary ...
... Human beings , in antihumanist eyes , belong to the struc- tures of thought that mold them or to the languages within which they are imprisoned , and persons are not agents or subjects but subject- positions . Hence the name of an ...
... what an author must be . The case might also be posed in Johnsonian terms . The principle that " human nature is always the same , " 13 no matter how customs and manners may change , informs all his work . 9 Introduction.
... human relations . To " patronise " or " condescend , " in eighteenth - century terms , did not yet imply the arrogance now associated with those words . " Condescension , " in Johnson's Dictionary , remains a Christ- ian virtue like ...
... Human Wishes . Within a month his tragedy Irene opened at Drury Lane . The playwright him- self attended , in a side box , and wore a scarlet waistcoat and gold- laced hat ; on this occasion he may have been noticed too much . In any ...
Contents
11 | |
34 | |
48 | |
Preferments Gate The Vanity of Human Wishes | 86 |
Man of Letters A Dictionary of the English Language | 103 |
The Living World The Rambler | 145 |
Reclaiming Imagination Rasselas | 173 |
The Theater of Mind The Plays of William Shakespeare | 198 |
Journeying Westward Political Writings A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
Touching the Shore The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
The Life to Come Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Abbreviation | 307 |
Notes | 309 |
Index | 363 |