Life of Johnson (Oxford World's Classics)

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James Boswell is for some the ideal scribe, for others a sycophantic toady. Edmund Wilson, for example, memorably labeled him "a vain and pushing diarist." Boswell can even be seen as someone unconsciously intent on undermining his idol in sonorous, balanced sentences. Early on in his massive Life, he puts all manner of ideas into our heads with his boobish attempts to clear the youthful Johnson of potential impropriety: "His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever." And while it's often tempting to ignore Boswell's more personal intrusions and delight solely in the melancholic master's words and deeds, there are suchdelightful admissions as, "I was at this time so occupied, shall I call it? or so dissipated, by the amusements of London that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25..."

Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and died in 1784--a long life, though one marred by depression and fear of death. On April 20, 1764, for example, he declared, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." Many of the quotes Boswell includes are a sort of greatest hits: Johnson's definitions of oats and lexicographer, his love for his cat Hodge, as well as thousands of bon, and mal, mots. ("Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"; "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.") But there are also many unfamiliar pleasures--Boswell's accounts of Johnson's literary industry, including the Dictionary, The Rambler, and Lives of the Poets; Johnson's singular loathing for Scotland and France; and the surprising hints of revelry. Awakened at 3 AM by friends, he greets them with, "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." This at age 42. Johnson's final years were marked by pain and loneliness but certainly no loss of wit.

Book Description

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 ideal biographer 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.

Customer Reviews:

One of the Lions of England.......2007-08-17

'No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,' Samuel Johnson.
Sorry, it is a hobby.

Samuel Johnson the writer of the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, which was a very big deal in his day as the elite felt the English language was in decline due to it being influenced by so many foreign influences and the marvel of Samuel Johnson's efforts and method of writing made him, according to Lord Chesterfield Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Oxford World's Classics), as someone to be deferred to as the Caesar of the English language. Samuel Johnson, along with his friend and former pupil David Garrick, helped place Shakespeare as the permanent king of the English language; further, Johnson was a great and singular essayist and has an eternal place as a minor poet of the English language. His dictionary shot Johnson into the inner circle of elite in English society.

Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" is a fascinating read as Boswell traces Johnson's life story. Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke, a friend of his, and together the center of English political and cultural life with the 'Literary Club' that they had both started were big players in forming the English reaction to the major liberal events going on in their day and could be said to be the fathers of modern conservatism. They were alive to face the genesis of modern liberalism, in the form of Jean Jacque Rousseau along with the American Revolution, theirs was the conservative response. 'What hypocrites are the drivers of negroes to be demanding liberty,' Johnson in reference to the Americans. (It is funny that Samuel Johnson was against slavery while the more liberal Boswell was for it). Although, I know Edmund Burke felt England to be in the reconcilable wrong with the American Revolution Edmund Burke's Speech on conciliation with the American colonies,: Delivered in the House of commons, March 22, 1775; ed., with notes and a study plan ... I. Crane (Twentieth century text-books) the Doctor, Samuel Johnson, did not and felt the Revolutionaries hypocritical ingrates. What is good about conservatism lays with these two fellows, Burke and Johnson. It is also amusing that Johnson's conservativism included the observation that countries should be judged by the condition in which their poor lived, disapprobation given to the worse.

Samuel Johnson came from very humble roots and his early life was spent in modest means, fortunately he was surrounded by books. His first years in London were quite a struggle, near pennyless, sometimes sleeping on the streets. The money he ended up getting for writing the dictionary wasn't much in the end, it was the fame that got him some wealth.

A marvelous read. Giving advice about the legal profession, education: his advice - just do it; habits form early and habits are hard to break... lots of interesting views from how to conduct oneself socially (Boswell seemed in constant search of this) to political commentary (one of my favorite was his advice on being weary of those that wrap themselves in the flag)... too much to write about. Boswell, when he first meets Johnson is so filled with awe and reverance but it mellows out some, he even starts playing games with the Doctor; however, he always greatly respects him but the idolitry disipates.

Although Samuel Johnson's conservativeness and strong opinions might turn people off I find it refreshing compared to the stealth tactics of politics today. Politicians don't say what they mean and that is also probably why the Doctor was discouraged from entering politics in his day by some close friends with ties in that area, somethings change only by degree. James Boswell, the author, didn't agree with the Doctor all the time but appreciated the hard, realistic way of looking at things and amusingly delivered (mostly by quirky analogies) that Samuel Johnson did.

Then Boswell is a story in himself. Boswell's Rousseau-ist fever for the notions of the 'Noble Savage, Natural Man' The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762 was interesting also; his generation caught it and he had strong sentiments towards it despite Johnson's arguments against its reasoning. This fever also, at the least, lent cover to the American Revolution.

Johnson could only afford one year of college. Received an honarary Doctorate for his dictionary.

One of the books one should read before they turn 20.

The best synopsis of Rousseau and in his own words is probably 'Creed of a Priest of Savoy' The Essential Rousseau (Essentials)

Reputations die hard.......2007-07-24

If you feel obliged to wade through the canon once in a while, this won't be a waste of your time, though these days Gibbon's roughly contemporaneous history is a much better read, Boswell's extreme formality being a bit wearing over 1200 pages (in the edition I read).
On the other hand, Boswell's telling of Johnson's life is sprightly and certainly not so tedious as the writings of Johnson himself. People who choose to read the Life will not be disappointed.
On yet another hand, I can easily understand why the library copy I borrowed, though purchased in 1949, had not yet been read (the uncut pages showing me so): except to specialists, I would not recommend this book in lieu of, say, 1000 or so others.
I guess this actually is a useless review: if you have already decided to read this, you shan't have gone wrong; if you're looking for a good read, you're probably not looking here.

TRULY A WONDERFUL BOOK THAT JUST TAKES YOU TO ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE.......2007-06-07

I own the Penguins Classics edition but no matter. The story is wonderfully rich. Boswell really is a master story teller because at no point did the story become dry. I literally read and savored every single word.

All I knew of Johnson is that he wrote the first English Dictionary. But I had no idea this man was full of wit. He had a temper no doubt and definitely went through periods of what sound like moderate to severe depression followed by periods of bursting with energy, joy and wit and incredibly prolific and productive in those bursts, enough so that he surprised most people with his abilities in those bursts of creative genius. I am biased as I am a psychiatric physician but it sound like bipolar disorder to me.

Whatever the case may be, I drank this book up. I'm still reading it, have about 40 pages left and haven't put it down since I picked it up.

A must read just because of the sheer wonderful story contained within!

It's a book.......2007-05-13

Haven't read it yet. But the processing job on the book itself was faulty...several pages were bent over and thus not trimmed properly.

Biographical Master Classic. A Must for all Prose Lovers........2006-09-06

I have read alot of biographys until a recently a Cambridge graduate friend recommended the first great biography-Life of Johnson. My British friends have a much better view of literature at large than I do so I listening and purchased this piece. I only appreciated Samuel Johnson for his work with the first English Dictionary which a first edition now retails for over $35000. James Boswell his biographer deplicts his life with such vivid respect and admiration so as to make me better understand what a true friend can be. They obviously had a great relationship for more than 40 years. Samuel Johnson is captured with all his great and abundant humor and deep insight. I love this quote" One man may lead a horse to water but twenty may not make him drink". All in all it is 1400 pages worth reading because its insight into 18th century life in London is so heart felt. Additionally alot of the their conversations took place at a Pub called the Mitre. It is located on Mitcham high street in Tooting, UK. I lived near by and spent a few nights their with friends. Little did I realize I was in the very pub where so many infamous conversations took place some two hundred years ago. A great read.

The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)

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The Life of Samuel Johnson is a treasure trove for the quotable eighteenth century lexicographer and man of letters
nice but heavily abridged
Biography as English literature.
Abridged Version
Would have enjoyed a cohesive narrative more

The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)
James Boswell
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140431160

Amazon.com

James Boswell is for some the ideal scribe, for others a sycophantic toady. Edmund Wilson memorably labeled him "a vain and pushing diarist." Boswell can even be seen as someone unconsciously intent on undermining his idol in sonorous, balanced sentences. Early on in his massive Life, he puts all manner of ideas into our heads with his boobish attempts to clear the youthful Johnson of potential impropriety: "His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever." And while it's often tempting to ignore Boswell's more personal intrusions and delight solely in the melancholic master's words and deeds, there are delightful admissions as, "I was at this time so occupied, shall I call it? or so dissipated, by the amusements of London that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25..."

Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 and died in 1784--a long life, though one marred by depression and fear of death. On April 20, 1764, for example, he declared, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." Many of the quotes Boswell includes are a sort of greatest hits: Johnson's definitions of oats and lexicographer, his love for his cat Hodge, as well as thousands of bon, and mal, mots. ("Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"; "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all.") But there are also many unfamiliar pleasures--Boswell's accounts of Johnson's literary industry, including the Dictionary, The Rambler and Lives of the Poets; Johnson's singular loathing for Scotland and France; and the surprising hints of revelry. Awakened at 3 AM by friends, he greets them with, "What, is it you, you dogs! I'll have a frisk with you." This at age 42. Johnson's final years were marked by pain and loneliness but certainly no loss of wit.

Customer Reviews:

The Life of Samuel Johnson is a treasure trove for the quotable eighteenth century lexicographer and man of letters .......2007-09-25

The Life of Samuel Johnson is the most famous biography ever written in the English language! Its author was the Scottish lawyer James Boswell
(1740-1795). Boswell was an intemperate soul enjoying boozing it up in taverns; whoring and wenching with ladies of the night; gossiping and quarreling with his rich Dad back in Scotland. Boswell was often a widely travelled worldly man who had visited the likes of Voltaire, Rosseau and Paoli the liberator of Corsican independence. Boswell's words allow us to see what eighteenth century London must have been like for the relatively affluent. Boswell only spent around 300 total days with Johnson from the first time they met in 1763 to the death of the Great Cham in 1784.
I have read the 1300 page complete diary which I recommend. I also recommend that for rereading this Penguin Abridged Edition will do just fine. In it you will find such quotes by Johnson as "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"; "Patriotism is the last refuge of a coward.:;
"We shall receive no letters in the grave." and countless philippics against the United States of America and Scotland.
Dr. Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield near Birmingham, England in 1709. He was best noted in his lifetime for his monumental work, "A Dictionary of the English Language." He also wrote plays, essays and newspaper columns. Among his friends were the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, authors Oliver Goldsmith and Colley Ciber and the famous Shakespearean actor David Garrick. Johnson was clubbable soul who had a cat named Hodge; had poor eyesight and was the widower of a much older woman. He had no children. Johnson was a devout Christian adherent of the Church of England, a monarchist and a rabid Tory. He had many prejudices and was not tacit in expressing them aloud.
Anyone who expects this famed biography to be a strict life following Johnson from cradle to grave will be disappointed. Instead it is poorly organized consisting of meetings between Johnson and Boswell over the years of their long friendship. It is a great book because of its quotablility and the quirky genius seen in the complex figure of Samuel Johnson. Boswell was also an author of genius whose detailed eye gives us a fascinating glimpse into a different age. This book is one of the essentials of English Literature.

nice but heavily abridged.......2002-01-12

I liked this but prefer the unabridged edition published by Oxford University Press (in their Oxford World's Classics series). If you're willing to read Boswell, spend a few dollars more for the OUP edition.

Biography as English literature........2001-12-27

Typically, I have a bias against abridged editions of literary works. Nevertheless, prudent editing and abridgement enhances the casual reader's appreciation of this literary tome. Undergraduates working a required reading list for English Lit classes are on their own. Anyway, Samuel Johnson was a noted author and editor of the 18th century English literary scene. Instead of an exhaustive study of Johnson's life as author and editor, biographer Boswell compiled a series of anecdotes, quotations, and correspondence that is held together by his friendship with Johnson. Boswell's purpose was to capture the essence of the man. Johnson was adept at articulating pithy remarks with surgical precision. For example, "...a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all." The 18th century spellings, etc. remain intact. We have Johnson to thank for the familiar "...hell is paved with good intentions," and "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Boswell takes care to portray Johnson as sexually moral. After the death of his wife, Johnson (according to Boswell) was apparently celibate. Johnson rebuffed "women of the town," and said he wasn't interested in their carnal delights. Johnson told David Garrick, the actor, that he would not go backstage at the theater because "the white bubbies and silk stockings of your Actresses excite my genitals." As an interesting aside, the editor's introduction speculates that Johnson's relationship with the widow Thrale may have been sexual, with bondage overtones. Who knows? The description of London coffeehouses, theaters, and gathering places are heavy with 18th century atmosphere. Bottom line, reading this book is interesting as a curiosity. Its relevance for 21st century readers may seem limited, but don't let that stop you from sampling the fare. ;-)

Abridged Version.......2001-03-19

This is an abridged version. If you want an unabridged version, get the Life of Johnson (Oxford World's Classics) [UNABRIDGED.

Would have enjoyed a cohesive narrative more.......2001-02-13

I picked up this book after reading that it's style of recording a subject verbatim was mimicked by Lillian Ross in her famous "The New Yorker" magazine article on Ernest Hemingway. Following Ernest Hemingway around with a pad and pencil in hand she simply copied everything that he said over a period of days. James Boswell used the same approach when he recorded the "Life of Samuel Johnson".

I had always thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson as being the most important literary critic from the 18th century. At least that is what Harold Bloom, the Yale literary critic, said. So I was disappointed that Boswell's "Life of Johnson" did not talk too much about literature. Rather Boswell takes us along as Johnson drinks "copious amounts of wine" and makes fun of the Scotch, the Irish, women, and certain facets of marriage. This dialogue is entertaining usually. But when Johnson supports the British class system and attacks the American patriots (this was 1776 after all) I found it annoying.

Boswell mentions Johnson's literature but does not delve into it. He spent some pages talking about Johnson's dictionary that he wrote with the help of two editorial assistants. (That was quite a feat if you consider that the French dictionnaire of the same period was put together by a team of scholars.) I would have enjoyed it more if Johnson or Boswell had talked about Boswell's book on Shakespeare, for example. He only mentions these books as the events surrounding their publication or the King's interest in them intersect with Johnson's life.

As other reviewers have pointed out this book is not a biography. Rather is in a amalagamation of Johnson's visits to his friends and a dialogue of what he said there. Boswell's sayings are often quoted and those recorded here are sometimes quite famous or funny. Famous: "One may lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink." Funny: "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities".

Product Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1904 edition by Henry Frowde, London, etc.

$Boswell\'s Life of Johnson: Volume 1$
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Boswell\'s Life of Johnson: Volume 1
James Boswell
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
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ASIN: 0543932613
Release Date: 2000-09-22

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This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1904 edition by Henry Frowde, London, etc.

The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume I of II(Large Print)

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The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume I of II(Large Print)
James Boswell
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ASIN: 1425061028
Release Date: 2007-01-03

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In Boswells 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.

Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)

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Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (Bloom's Modern Critical Views)

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The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume II of II(Large Print)

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The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume II of II(Large Print)
James Boswell
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A Life of Johnson (Naxos Audio)
James Boswell
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Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson

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The making of a masterpiece
The writing of a biography
Superb!
Simply Delightful
A Look at a Biographer

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson
Adam Sisman
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Adam Sisman's task is almost as "presumptuous" as the one he anatomizes with such precision and grace in his text. He has attempted a biography of a biography--and not just any biography, but the most famous one in the English language. From its publication in 1791, James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson has been acclaimed (and reviled) as the first truly modern biography, a book that reveals its subject with unprecedented intimacy, faults and all. The 20th-century discoveries of quantities of manuscripts, including Boswell's extremely frank journals, sparked greater interest in the man once dismissed as a mere recorder of Johnson's pithy conversation, but now shown to be an ambitious writer in his own right. More to the point for Sisman, these documents made it possible to scrutinize in detail the writing of The Life of Samuel Johnson. "Why did he want so much to write about Johnson, and why did he persist in the face of so much adversity?" asks Sisman. "How did he set about his task? Did his ideas change as his writing progressed? How did he evaluate the varied and sometimes contradictory material he gathered?" These questions are still relevant to biographers today, and Sisman addresses them with sensitivity and acuity. He begins by cogently sketching the unlikely friendship begun in 1763 between a renowned 53-year-old London man of letters and a naive 22-year-old Scotsman, then moves on to examine in depth the seven years after Johnson's death during which Boswell battled depression, bouts of heavy drinking, and venereal disease to shape masses of material into a book "that stands next to other biographies as Shakespeare stands beside other playwrights: towering above them all." The result is a thoughtful and revealing analysis of the creative process by which biography, as much as fiction, is shaped. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

A heroic, brilliantly detailed portrait of the biographer as artist.

James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is the most celebrated of all biographies, acknowledged as one of the greatest and most entertaining books in the English language. Yet Boswell himself was regarded by his contemporaries as a man of no judgment and condemned by posterity as a lecher and a drunk. How could such a fool have written such a book?

Boswell's "presumptuous task" was his biography of Johnson. Adam Sisman traces the friendship between Boswell and his great mentor, one of the most unlikely pairings in literature, and provides a fascinating and original account of Boswell's seven-year struggle to write the Life following Johnson's death in 1784. At the time, Boswell was trying -- and failing -- to make his mark in the world: desperate for money; debilitated by drink; torn between his duties at home and the lure of London; tormented by rival biographers; often embarrassed, humiliated and depressed. Boswell's Presumptuous Task shows movingly how a man who failed in almost everything else produced a masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

The making of a masterpiece .......2007-02-14

This book tells the story of the greatest biographical masterpiece in the English language. In the course of it we learn to appreciate the skill, dedication, persistence and great art of Boswell. This is Sisman's description of Boswell as he wrote the life :

"The story of Boswell's life as he wrote the epic Life of Johnson is itself an epic: in the process Boswell experienced an extraordinary degree of exhilaration and depression, pride, humiliation, confidence, doubt, satisfaction, hurt, loneliness, disillusionment and grief." A man of great ambition, Boswell had little to show for his efforts at the time of Johnson's death. Writing the biography "was his last hope of achieving anything worthwhile."

But Boswell through his great diligence, his careful noting down of the words of his great friend, his artful reshaping of much of what he heard, his willingness to tell not simply of virtues but of faults, his ability to present the whole man, succeeded in giving the world the picture of the Great Cham which attracts and moves us to this day. Gruff, easily made irritable, but capable of incredible kindness, always fierce and fast in his remarks, tremendously knowledgeable, a loyal friend, the master maker of the Dictionary, Johnson is presented by Boswell as a fully rounded character.
Sisman gives the background to the lives of these two giants of English Literature. He focuses on Boswell's preparation for the work and his ongoing method of execution. He reveals in details the way one great masterpiece of world- literature was made by someone often derided by those of his own time.

The writing of a biography.......2004-03-29

I've never read the biography written by Mr. Boswell about his friend Dr. Johnson, but having finished this extremely well-written book concerning it, I am willing to give it a try. I've heard of Sam Johnson of course (what literary person has not), but knew really next to nothing about him, except that his biography was written by Boswell. Now this book has revealed in all its detail how that book came to be written, and it has sparked my great interest. That is the highest compliment which a reader can pay to an author, that his work has led the reader to another writing, based solely upon what the reader learned in the first book. Hats off to Mr. Sisman for a job well done!

Superb!.......2003-09-03

I thought this was an outstanding dual biography of Dr Johnson and James Boswell. I marveled continuously at how carefully and thoughtfully Sisman describes the selvages and biases of the cloth of these two writers' lives without unraveling them. The writing itself is exemplary. Sisman's book, along with Tomalin's biography of Pepys, are among the best biographies in recent memory.

Simply Delightful.......2003-08-20

What more is there to say. Either you like non-fiction, or you don't. Don't expect to be reading anything other than a magnificent biography, the best I've ever read.

A Look at a Biographer.......2002-10-29

Boswell's Presumptious Task (The Making of the Life of Dr. Johson) is an examination of a biographer creating a biography, or, in this case, THE biographer creating THE biography. This book is itself not quite a biography as it concentrates mainly, although not exclusively, on Boswell's life as it pertains to the creation of his book. It is also not a careful examination of the book Boswell wrote itself. Instead, it is a fascinating view of the human interactions, both between subject and author, but also those between the author and his sources before and after Johnson's death, that went into the creating process. The literary masterpiece that came to be the Life of Johnson was born out of the social and cultural mileau both men enjoyed in London and this is well recreated in this book. This is a readable, sometimes funny, sometimes touching book.

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