The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)

Enjoy the history of these literary heros.

Great book

The Life of Samuel Johnson was a surprise for me. Though I've often heard of this book, I procrastinated heavily on reading a 250 year old book about the stuffy man who wrote the dictionary. An Ill-conceived mistake on my part. I really loved this book. Boswell's characterization of Samuel Johnson is of course swayed by Boswell's infinite hero worship of the man, and its therefore true that Boswell's portrayal should be taken with a grain of 250 year old salt. What the book might lack in accuracy it makes up for in entertainment. Johnson is a highly complex figure with very Falstaffian dimensions. Larger than Life his presence can be felt through the book even centuries later. Johnson was a man who knew how to speak his mind in every sort of eloquent fashion, and was widely known not only for his books, but for his excellent skills in conversation. From my perspective, Johnson always came across as a tough and stodgy intellectual (ala Harold Bloom for today) but Boswell spends a lot of time defending his great friend and attesting to his friend's utter humanity. This can get pretty tiring over the course of 300 pages, let alone the unabridged 1,000+ pages. It is no surprise then that many people criticize Boswell for being an annoying, fawning, fangirl. In Boswell's defense, the Life of Samuel Johnson is a great work. It's not only a giant biography, but a great reminder to the importance of conversation. The hero's of Boswell's world are people who know how to talk meaningfully about meaningful things. In these modern, divisive times where stupidity has too great an influence over people, its nice to remember that people used to actually talk face to face to each other about kind of important things. Samuel Johnson, by today's standards, would count as a very offensive person. He had no qualms at all about slavery, Detested anyone who wasn't devoutly British, hated Americans to the core, thought women should stay in the proverbial kitchen, and lamented the ending of public hangings. But Boswell paints such an affectionate portrait, that I cannot help but admire the vigor, integrity, and intellect of this tremendously charismatic person. If that is not a sign of a great biography, I do not know what is.

great

This book is a fascinating look at Boswell as well as Johnson, ant at 18th century England too --from my point of view as a scientist focused in old age on historical reading. Read Boswell on Johnson instead of that novel your book club is peddling!

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

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.

Almost two years ago, I gave this five stars. On reading much more about Boswell and his procedures, I have to qualify my earlier review. If you want a book about Johnson that tells how one man saw him, then yes, it still merits five stars. If you want a full perspective of Johnson - - as the word biography would imply, I'd downgrade it to three stars. So on balance, four.There are of course many positives, or I wouldn't have given it 5 stars two years ago. Boswell had a strong talent for recording Johnson's conversations, and they are wonderful. Some of them are down right hilarious! Boswell was also a bit of a dramatist, setting up situations such as Johnson's meeting with Wilkes, placing bets over whether he would challenge Johnson on his habit of hiding orange peels. And Boswell could tell a story very dramatically - - it's his dramatic skills and memory which have been the basis on which his champions have defended him.However, as a 'biography' this leaves much to be desired. Not just the issue of scope, with some 80% of the pages being on 20 years of Johnson's life. Boswell just wasn't a biographer, his story is too personal, he inadequately integrates important opinions, and he suppresses important information that's inconsistent with his rather simple view of Johnson. As Richard Schwartz has excellently pointed out, Boswell has presented us with an unshaped series of details, where data do not converge to a whole, and remain undigested.Inaccuracies: Boswell tells us early on that he sometimes scurried across London to verify a date, but he apparently wouldn't consult a perpetual calendar; there are a number of occasions where his dates don't align with the day of week, yet his certainty in dating events make it all sound so true. And there is the famous blooper of his putting Johnson at Oxford for three years, rather than one. The inaccuracies would not be such an issue were it not for the fact that Boswell positions himself as being definitive, and condemns the efforts of John Hawkins and Hester Thrale as being inaccurate. Both of them saw aspects of Johnson whihc Boswell never had the depth to see and understand.Repositioning: Boswell the story teller shaped events... There is an important event where Johnson meets the King in the King's library. Boswell makes it sound as if the King was completely focused on Johnson, and no one else was there - - as if it was a private audience (yet it certainly wasn't). To read this book, you would think that Boswell was one of the most important people in Johnson's life; while Boswell certainly mattered to Johnson, there are very few descriptions of Johnson's life without Boswell, as if Johnson were more dependent on Boswell than the reverse. But the total number of days they were together was a very small fraction of Johnson's life.Suppression of details: Boswell is so intent on describing Johnson's devotion to his departed wife, that he never tells us that Johnson had hoped to remarry, or that later in life he made advances to a memebr of his household. Boswell also won't relay lifelong friend Edmund Hector's concern that at one point Johnson was so depressed that Hector feared it might shorten his life. These details don't fit Boswell's simple view of Johnson - - and when someone like Anna Seward would send him anecdotes with a disturbing tone, Boswell wrote it off to "prejudice." We also know now that Hawkins, who knew Johnson long before Boswell, wrote a bio of Johnson that has been unfairly eclipsed, largely because of Boswell's treatment and Boswell's unquestioned authority.Even for the years that Boswell -did- know Johnson, his record is far from complete. Johnson recovered from one major period of depression by being immersed in family life with the Thrales, yet Boswell never spent much time at their household, and so never really saw that 'family' side of Johnson.Should you avoid this like the plague? No, not at all. But the full unabridged edition represents quite a commitment, and you might be better off reading the abridged version, and spending the time saved by reading Bate's biogrpahy, or even Johnson's own writings.(In writing this review, I've been very influenced by various books & articles by Donald Greene & Richard Schwartz; I've also tried to be sensitive to the defenses of such Boswell defenders as Frederick Pottle.)

Good product swiftly delivered.Thank you.

Dear Dr. JohnsonHaving obviously not had the chance to coincide with you, Dr. Johnson, I feel obliged to say a few words to you. Your great friend James Boswell has written a book about you that is deservedly considered the best biography written in English. The work is both great, for reasons that I will partially explain later, and big, reaching about 1,500 pages. Nevertheless, I have read a shortened version and I have to say you that I have reached next to the end with regret, because not only I wanted to know more about you, but also because Boswell's portrait is so lively that it is sad to part with such a good company as you.Sir, many features are remarkable in both his work and your life. About the first, I would like to stand out very briefly the devotion that Boswell professed to you. You did know it much better than us, as when you said, « Were I in distress, there is no man to whom I should sooner come than to you ». I find Boswell's account very likable because you were gifted with a very graceful blend of humanity, knowledge and quick acumen. Boswell noted on several occasions that though there was roughness in your manner, there was no ill-nature in your disposition. Nevertheless, you were a very sociable man, fond of good food and good company in a warm tavern, but at the same time you underwent through much of your life the burden of melancholy. Boswell noticed that you thought that there is more to be endured than enjoyed in the general condition of human life.I thank you, Sir, for your witticism, which always was very clever, acute and ironic, without a hint of sarcasm, in a quite similar way as that of Miguel de Cervantes. We still wonder if you were the author of that masterpiece of criticism: “Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good”.Be that as it may, I should like to end with a couple of your good remarks. One is about London: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. In several instances where I have visited this city, I have remembered with affection your remark. The other is about England. You disputed with Boswell about Scotland many times. He was Scottish and you were not very fond of this country. One time the discussion was about the beautiful landscape. Boswell made you admit that certainly there were in Scotland beautiful landscapes, but you insisted that none was better than the view of the road that leads to England.I am closing this letter, Sir. I should confess to you that the biography is so fine that I have decided not to arrive at the end, for I did not want to part from such a good company. Therefore, Sir, Let me finish quoting you once more when you said, “I am more candid than I was when I was younger. As I know more of mankind and expect less of them”.Sincerely yoursJavierPD: The quality of the paper used by Penguin is remarkably low.

Everybody knows some of Dr Johnson's pithy sayings. It's worthwhile sitting down and reading the complete collection at some time in your life, I'm just sorry I didn't get round to it sooner...