The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

Overview

Poet, lexicographer, critic, moralist and Great Cham, Dr. Johnson had in his friend Boswell the ideal biograoher.

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 marvellously 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781515428633
Publisher:	Wilder Publications
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	450
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

James Boswell (1740-1795) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland where he received a formal education in English, math and Latin. He attended the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow before traveling to London where he lived for several years. While studying law, he had a chance meeting with the English writer Samuel Johnson. After establishing a good rapport, Boswell would go on to produce the biography The Life of Samuel Johnson, which would become his crowning creative achievement.