Designing the Life of Johnson: The Lyell Lectures in Bibliography, 2001-2 - Softcover

Redford, Bruce

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199284830 ISBN 13: 9780199284832

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2005

Synopsis

For over two centuries Boswell's massive biography of Samuel Johnson has been both reverenced and reviled. Yet neither its admirers nor its critics have fully understood how the book was designed to work upon them. Boswell himself is partly to blame: throughout the Life he directs attention away from artistry to industry, from creative choices to dedicated researches. Yet his working manuscript, one of the twentieth century's greatest literary discoveries, tells a much different tale. Designing the Life of Johnson, the first study of its kind, reconstructs Boswell's models and methods by charting this textual labyrinth. It begins by analyzing the stages that led to the first edition, goes on to reveal the impact of portrait and theatre-piece upon the structure of the Life, and ends by uncovering the transformation of Johnson from savage into sage. The result is a more subtle, more vital assessment of Boswell the designer--and an enhanced awareness of biography's power to make life into art.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce Redford is University Professor at Boston University.

Review

"Redford is always in absolute control of his material: his readings and interpretations are perceptive and incisive, never strained or forced. The result is a wholly persuasive account of the 'textual labyrinth' out of which Boswell created his masterpiece.... [An] elegant and powerful book."--Times Literary Supplement

"A winning combination of scholarly strength and subtlety of insight which will make these gracefully written lectures a fitting companion to Redford's edition of the manuscript, and also the inescapable point of departure for anyone who wishes to understand how it was that Boswell designed The Life of Johnson."--Review of English Studies

"Redford made a careful study of Boswell's working manuscript in order to reveal just how carefully the biographer labored to produce his seemingly spontaneous and ingenuous work.... This book is accessible on almost every level and thus a fitting introduction to the world of Boswell scholarship. At the same time it is indispensable to those interested in the biographic genre, since Redford intends it as a comment on the nature of biography itself.... Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty."--Choice

"No one has made full use of the entire Boswellian archive: his complete working manuscript, notes, journals, letters, and proofs. This situation is happily rectified by Bruce Redford's Designing the Life of Johnson.... An invaluable and comprehensive overview of Boswell's biographical procedures and practices.... [This] is an impressive achievement. The availability of the entire working manuscript, and the author's skill in using this manuscript to describe Boswell's complex procedures, make the book the most useful overall study of the Life yet available."--Biography

"Embodies very high standards of scholarship and critical acumen.... Redford is able to bring intimate textual knowledge to bear on the subject.... Redford's study will enable scholars and critics to see this complex great work in its subtle particularities as never before.... This is a delicate, precise, yet bold and daring book."--Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0199284830
• ISBN 13: 9780199284832
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 206