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UK Holidays - Life of Johnson (Oxford World's Classics)
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $19.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 months
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 809
EAN: 9780192835314
Format: Unabridged
ISBN: 0192835319
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1536
Publication Date: 1998-11-19
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Reviews:
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This complete and unabridged edition is the only complete critical edition in paperback. Samuel Johnson was a poet, essayist, dramatist, and pioneering lexicographer, but his continuing reputation depends less on his literary output than on the fortunate accident of finding an ideal biographer in James Boswell. As Johnson's constant and admiring companion, Boswell was able to record not only the outward events of his life, but also the humour, wit, and sturdy common sense of his conversation. His brilliant portrait of a major literary figure of the eighteenth century, enriched by historical and social detail, remains a monument to the art of biography.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Beware: This is ABRIDGED!!!!!!
Comment: This is the abridged version! Don't get this!
I love Boswell's Life of Johnson, it is one of my favorite books in the world. (Definitely in the top five).
It has altered my outlook on life, the universe, and everything.... in a permanently positive manner.
But I absolutely hate, loath, and despise all pitiful "abridged" versions.
And I could not find anywhere on Amazon's page that this is abridged!
Now I have to send it back! What a pain!
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Lions of England
Comment: 'No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,' Samuel Johnson.
Sorry, it is a hobby.
Samuel Johnson the writer of the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, which was a very big deal in his day as the elite felt the English language was in decline due to it being influenced by so many foreign influences and the marvel of Samuel Johnson's efforts and method of writing made him, according to Lord Chesterfield Lord Chesterfield's Letters (Oxford World's Classics), as someone to be deferred to as the "Caesar" of the English language. Samuel Johnson, along with his friend and former pupil David Garrick, helped place Shakespeare as the permanent king of the English language; further, Johnson was a great and singular essayist and has an eternal place as a minor poet of the English language. His dictionary shot Johnson into the inner circle of elite in English society.
Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" is a fascinating read as Boswell traces Johnson's life story. Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke, a friend of his, and together the center of English political and cultural life with the 'Literary Club' that they had both started were big players in forming the English reaction to the major liberal events going on in their day and could be said to be the fathers of modern conservatism. They were alive to face the genesis of modern liberalism, in the form of Jean Jacque Rousseau along with the American Revolution, theirs was the conservative response. 'What hypocrites are the drivers of negroes to be demanding liberty,' Johnson in reference to the Americans. (It is funny that Samuel Johnson was against slavery while the more liberal Boswell was for it). Although, I know Edmund Burke felt England to be in the reconcilable wrong with the American Revolution Edmund Burke's Speech on conciliation with the American colonies,: Delivered in the House of commons, March 22, 1775; ed., with notes and a study plan ... I. Crane (Twentieth century text-books) the Doctor, Samuel Johnson, did not and felt the Revolutionaries hypocritical ingrates. What is good about conservatism lays with these two fellows, Burke and Johnson. It is also amusing that Johnson's conservativism included the observation that countries should be judged by the condition in which their poor lived, disapprobation given to the worse.
Samuel Johnson came from very humble roots and his early life was spent in modest means, fortunately he was surrounded by books. His first years in London were quite a struggle, near pennyless, sometimes sleeping on the streets. The money he ended up getting for writing the dictionary wasn't much in the end, it was the fame that got him some wealth.
A marvelous read. Giving advice about the legal profession, education: his advice - just do it; habits form early and habits are hard to break... lots of interesting views from how to conduct oneself socially (Boswell seemed in constant search of this) to political commentary (one of my favorite was his advice on being weary of those that wrap themselves in the flag)... too much to write about. Boswell, when he first meets Johnson is so filled with awe and reverance but it mellows out some, he even starts playing games with the Doctor; however, he always greatly respects him but the idolitry disipates.
Although Samuel Johnson's conservativeness and strong opinions might turn people off I find it refreshing compared to the stealth tactics of politics today. Politicians don't say what they mean and that is also probably why the Doctor was discouraged from entering politics in his day by some close friends with ties in that area, somethings change only by degree. James Boswell, the author, didn't agree with the Doctor all the time but appreciated the hard, realistic way of looking at things and amusingly delivered (mostly by quirky analogies) that Samuel Johnson did.
Then Boswell is a story in himself. Boswell's Rousseau-ist fever for the notions of the 'Noble Savage, Natural Man' The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762 was interesting also; his generation caught it and he had strong sentiments towards it despite Johnson's arguments against its reasoning. This fever also, at the least, lent cover to the American Revolution.
Johnson could only afford one year of college. Received an honarary Doctorate for his dictionary.
One of the books one should read before they turn 20.
The best synopsis of Rousseau and in his own words is probably 'Creed of a Priest of Savoy' The Essential Rousseau (Essentials)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Reputations die hard
Comment: If you feel obliged to wade through the canon once in a while, this won't be a waste of your time, though these days Gibbon's roughly contemporaneous history is a much better read, Boswell's extreme formality being a bit wearing over 1200 pages (in the edition I read).
On the other hand, Boswell's telling of Johnson's life is sprightly and certainly not so tedious as the writings of Johnson himself. People who choose to read the Life will not be disappointed.
On yet another hand, I can easily understand why the library copy I borrowed, though purchased in 1949, had not yet been read (the uncut pages showing me so): except to specialists, I would not recommend this book in lieu of, say, 1000 or so others.
I guess this actually is a useless review: if you have already decided to read this, you shan't have gone wrong; if you're looking for a good read, you're probably not looking here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: TRULY A WONDERFUL BOOK THAT JUST TAKES YOU TO ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE
Comment: I own the Penguins Classics edition but no matter. The story is wonderfully rich. Boswell really is a master story teller because at no point did the story become dry. I literally read and savored every single word.
All I knew of Johnson is that he wrote the first English Dictionary. But I had no idea this man was full of wit. He had a temper no doubt and definitely went through periods of what sound like moderate to severe depression followed by periods of bursting with energy, joy and wit and incredibly prolific and productive in those bursts, enough so that he surprised most people with his abilities in those bursts of creative genius. I am biased as I am a psychiatric physician but it sound like bipolar disorder to me.
Whatever the case may be, I drank this book up. I'm still reading it, have about 40 pages left and haven't put it down since I picked it up.
A must read just because of the sheer wonderful story contained within!
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's a book
Comment: Haven't read it yet. But the processing job on the book itself was faulty...several pages were bent over and thus not trimmed properly.
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