James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson

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), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1791

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

Resources

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When James Boswell published in 1791 his Life of the dominant figure of the later eighteenth-century literary scene, it was at once both condemned as to content and manner and hailed as a classic of a new kind. Johnson had been distinguished not only for his learning, seriousness of thought and ornate prose style, but for his grotesque and eccentric personality and pungent conversation. In Boswell he found the ideal biographer to display this aspect, since Boswell had already developed in his extensive personal journals an acute sense of the physically-precise description and a wonderful ear for and ability to render dialogue. A generation younger than Johnson, and his social superior as a well-born Scots lawyer, Boswell had early recognised that his friendship with Johnson was something…

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1040 words

Citation: McGowan, Ian. "The Life of Samuel Johnson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=358, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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