The most celebrated English biography is a group portrait in which extraordinary man paints the picture of a dozen more
At the centre of a brilliant circle which included Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, Fanny Burney and even George III, Boswell captures the powerful, troubled and witty figure of Samuel Johnson, who towers above them all. Yet this is also an intimate picture of domestic life, which mingles the greatest talkers of a talkative age with the hero's humbler friends in a picture which is, before all things, humane.
As a young man about London, James Boswell was obsessed by literature, and, on a fateful day in 1763, he attached himself with unswerving tenacity to the dominant literary figure of his age—the splendidly rotund, articulate, and humane Dr Samuel Johnson. What followed was the most famous of friendships between writers and the bais for the remarkable documentation contained in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, the greatest and most compelling of all biographies.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
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.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780140431162
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0140431160
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. While Samuel Johnson's dictionary remains a monument of scholarship and his essays and criticism command continuing respect, we owe our knowledge of the man himself to James Boswell's biography. Through a series of detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure with a huge appetite for life, crossing swords with other great 18th-century luminaries, from Garrick and Goldsmith to Burney and Burke - even his long-suffering friend and disciple, James Boswell himself. Yet Johnson had a vulnerable, even tragic, side and anxieties and obsessions haunted his private hours. 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 marvelously vivacious Journals he wrote daily furnished him with first-rate material when he came to write his biography. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780140431162
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0140431160xvz189zvxnew
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0140431160-new
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0140431160
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0140431160
Book Description Condition: New. 1979. Paperback. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780140431162
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0140431160
Book Description Condition: New. 1979. Paperback. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780140431162