James Boswell, The Hypochondriak

Ian McGowan (University of Stirling)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Domains

Journalism

Dates

First circulation or publication 1777 - 1783

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Commentary / Criticism (literary)

Resources

Like many eighteenth-century men of letters, James Boswell was a prolific essayist and contributed, usually anonymously, to many periodicals, most extensively in the seventy monthly essays (1777-83) of “The Hypochondriack” for The London Magazine, of which he was part owner; they were collected with annotation by Margery Bailey in 1928. “Hypochondria” – melancholy – was a fashionable malady of the period, and one that intermittently afflicted Boswell; but fortunately he drew for subject matter on his wide cultural background as well as private experience to write about many of the social topics of the day--love, death, religion, life in the country--as well as literature – diaries, criticism, authorial revision. If they lack the profundity of Johnson's Rambler or the narrative suavity of Addison and Steele's Spectator, they reveal thoughtful attitudes paralleled in his other writings....

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

410 words

Citation: McGowan, Ian. "The Hypochondriak". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=546, accessed 05 December 2025.]