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Title: Life of Samuel Johnson by JAMES BOSWELL ISBN: 0-679-41717-6 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 11 January, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Biography
Comment: Surely this is "The Biography" in the same sense that to the Scholastic thinkers, Aristotle was "The Philosopher."
More to the point, it is an endlessly fascinating book, one of those rare works that can be opened at random with consistently rewarding results. Johnson, of course, is one of those rare characters who demonstrates that life is not necessarily less rich than fiction, and Boswell is an entertaining (and amusingly exasperating) chronicler. The "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" is also well worth reading and randomly revisiting.
However, I'm somewhat alarmed by the comments below about the accuracy of this version. I bought this because it was a decent-looking hardback version--I had actually read a library copy (some long out-of-print edition). Could some reviewer please explain the deviations? My skimming and minor re-reading hasn't revealed anything glaring yet, but it's been a while since my original reading, and I haven't sat down for a long Boswell read in a few years.
Rating: 5
Summary: This deserves to be called a "World's Classic"
Comment: Boswell was not the obvious choice to write the best biography about Samuel Johnson, much less one of the greatest biographies in world literature. He had much less contact with Johnson than Mrs. Thrale, for many years a close friend of Johnson who spent much more time with him than did Boswell. In fact, Boswell spent perhaps 400 days with Johnson over a period of many years. He also was not Johnson's literary executor. Finally, Boswell was regarded by many of his day, and afterwards, as something of an 18th Century celebrity hound. He made a point of meeting every famous person he could (Voltaire, Rousseau), and went to great efforts to make himself famous. Nevertheless, in his Life of Johnson, Boswell succeeded in portraying Johnson and his circle so vividly that more than 200 years later they come across as real human beings. He did this by breaking the convention of concentrating only on the most favorable aspects of his subject's life, and instead describing Johnson's eccentricities of dress, behavior, etc. Moreover, Boswell did not neglect to include incidents that make himself appear ridiculous. The book is both extremely funny and moving. If you read this, you will want to immediatley get a copy of Boswell's book on the trip that Johnson and he took to the Hebrides.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Epic Friendship
Comment: Charged with everything from homosexuality to hatred of his subject, Boswell gives us a great gift in this monumental work. What must be the greatest document of a friendship besides being a fine piece of biography and an important resource for social historians, The Life of Johnson should not be missed by any student of eighteenth-century English literature. Other than Johnson's literary opinions, you can learn about his days's thoughts on anxiety and religious doubts. So turn your TV off for a month and read a great book and become acquainted with some truly interesting and intellectual people.
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Title: Samuel Johnson: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) by Donald Greene, Samuel Johnson ISBN: 0192840428 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Boswell's London Journal: 1762-1763 by Frederick A. Pottle, James Boswell ISBN: 0300057350 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work That Defined the English Language by Samuel Johnson, Jack Lynch ISBN: 0802714218 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.93 |
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Title: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland : with The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides by James Boswell, Allan Massie, Samuel Johnson ISBN: 0375414185 Publisher: Unknown Publisher - Being Researched Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) by Samuel Johnson, David Womersley ISBN: 0140436278 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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