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The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
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The Life of Samuel Johnson (original 1791; edition 1952)

by James Boswell (Author), Bergen Evans (Introduction)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3,881413,143 (4.21)127
A nice little abridged version from the 50s suitable for traveling in both its time and ours. ( )
  JayLivernois | Aug 25, 2020 |
English (37)  Danish (1)  Swedish (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (40)
Showing 1-25 of 37 (next | show all)
Fascinating, for several reasons: that Johnson is an extraordinary character, that London in the 1760s was an exciting place, that Boswell’s anecdotal voice is pleasurable to read - not least because of the cross-currents of ideas (current today) that were being tested as they flowed through and around what is quite an intimate relationship between the two men.

On the one hand, Boswell, when invited to dinner at Johnson’s house had low expectations:
I supposed we scarcely have knives and forks…but the fact was we had very good soup, a boiled leg of lamb and spinach, a veal pie. and a rice pudding. (p.164)
and on the other the pervasive influences of Rousseau (dismissed by Johnson as nonsense)
…the happiness of a savage life;…’Here I am free and unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of Nature, with this Indian woman by my side, and this gun with which I can procure food when I want it: what more can be desired for human happiness?’…Johnson. …gross absurdity. It is sad stuff; it is brutish…(p.166)
Johnson has a tendency to make assertions with little foundation or evidence other than the weight of a turn of phrase or contrarian obstinance.
…he loved to display his ingenuity in argument; and therefore would sometimes in conversation maintain opinions which he was sensible were wrong, but in supporting which, his reasoning and wit would be most conspicuous. (p. 209)
I found myself noting many passages. One I thought applied to me and I'll note is here for reference
'Sir, a man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing'. (p.288)


Perhaps it’s that the anecdotes include so many notable encounters amidst the daily routines of eating and visiting that this ‘Life’ can't help but be consumed, not just as an intellectual journey but where tangible remnants in the physical world prompt other depths: I've been fortunate to have visited Dr Johnson's house in London at 17 Gough Square, my sister once gave me a William Hogarth illustration from [b:The Analysis of Beauty|23672505|The Analysis of Beauty (Dover Books of Fine Art)|William Hogarth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429097330l/23672505._SY75_.jpg|916332], and from my maternal grandfather, I have a complete 1805 set of The Plays of William Shakespeare which includes Dr Johnson's Preface.

I'll now exhume my memories of Gough Square, explore Hogarth's The Analysis of Beauty, and read Dr Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare. The danger is that I'll become obsessed with 18th Century London. ( )
  simonpockley | Feb 25, 2024 |
At the end of his Life of Johnson, James Boswell admits to many of his subject's faults: Johnson's irascibility, his prejudices, his narrow-mindedness in religion and politics. Johnson was a conservative with a capital C, and he is outright dismissive of many of the important philosophical ideas of his time (there is little consideration of Locke, Hume or Smith, much less Kant).

Instead, Johnson is known has the foremost literary figure of 18th Century London. He was not a man of ideas; rather, he was a man of language, and his greatest achievement was to codify that language in his Dictionary. Again, this project was an essentially conservative endeavor, an attempt to protect and elevate the language so that the uneducated masses could be kept in their linguistic place.

The Romantics that followed represented a rebellion against this staid, elitist, infighting group of literati that includes Addison, Steele, Pope and Johnson. Instead of engaging in a game of wits against their intellectual rivals, the Romantics sought to expand the possibilities of language by infusing it with a more natural, vernacular, personal and passionate approach. The writers of the Age of Johnson were essentially backwards looking, translating and retranslating the Greeks and Romans, writing criticism on Shakespeare. The Romantics were visionary and progressive. johnson would have probably scoffed at the likes of a Keats or a Blake as being too radical and impolite in their poetic visions.

Boswell's life of Johnson is confusing in that, while it is a warts and all depiction of the good doctor, the reader is a left with a sense that Boswell looks at his subject through the rose-colored lenses of a literary acolyte. What are we meant to think of this complicated man? ( )
  jonbrammer | Jul 1, 2023 |
Greatest biography written bar none. Captures the nature of the man better than anything since. I wouldn't call it the best model for writing a biography, but it still is the finest one ever written. Never surpassed. ( )
  Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |
The stages of reading Boswell's Johnson thus far:
1) Believing Johnson was a genius.
2) Knowing Johnson was an idiot.
3) Shipping Johnson and Boswell.

The moment Boswell meets Johnson is electric.

I'm having so much fun with this one, Johnson is quite often extremely relatable: "I always feel an inclination to do nothing" (p. 268). Going to take a nice break before tackling volume 2. ( )
  jakebornheimer | May 12, 2021 |
A nice little abridged version from the 50s suitable for traveling in both its time and ours. ( )
  JayLivernois | Aug 25, 2020 |
2 v. ( )
  ME_Dictionary | Mar 19, 2020 |
More than a book, this is a guide to life in the literal sense of the term. A towering, monumental achievement impossible to imagine not knowing. I return to it all the time. ( )
  Stubb | Aug 28, 2018 |
One of the best books to just start browsing. I probably pick this up for a 20-minute entertainment as much as any other in my library. ( )
  browsers | May 5, 2016 |
I came to this "biography" (the ironic quotes because of the present controvery; google and learn, if you're interested) by way of the epigram to Nabokov's "Pale Fire": "This reminds me of the ludicrous account he gave Mr. Lanton, of the despicable state of a young gentleman of good family. 'Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.' And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favorite cat, and said, 'But Hodge shan't be shot: no, no, Hodge shall not be shot."

Dr. Johnson wrote the first respectable English Dictionary. He was imperious and funny and he once at so much that "he nearly died from downright eating."

Read and love. ( )
  evamat72 | Mar 31, 2016 |
Obviously, this rating is for myself alone. Two stars in my library means that I did not like the book, but that someone else might. In this case, I found Boswell to fawning for my enjoyment, and there were far more details than I was interested in. It is perhaps more an indication of my state of mind rather than an indictment on Boswell that I don't have the patience to read this huge tome. ( )
  MrsLee | Jul 19, 2015 |
Many segments of this were interesting or entertaining but having finished it I definitely feel like I would have been better served by the abridged version. Boswell's digressions are almost half the book. It's somewhat unintentionally humorous the way he keeps bringing things around to talking about himself and somewhat ironic that he's been completely successful in his attempt to immortalize himself as much as his subject by this work but that this only resulted in being confirmed as a complete and utter tool to centuries of posterity. Most striking is possibly the two page rant he inserts about how Johnson was wrong to oppose slavery.

As Boswell only knew Johnson during the last twenty years of Johnson's life, much of the book is devoted to describing that period, and the experience of an old man confronting his own mortality as he dies after seeing the deaths of most of his friends. Based on the consistency and fervor with which Johnson communicates his fear of death one is struck by the impression that the professed religious beliefs of even those of a previous, more credible age are quite hollow. ( )
  jhudsui | Aug 1, 2014 |
Boswell is a good biographer, better than most modern ones. Samuel Johnson was quite a character, one who, even today, would be interesting to know. Whether discussing the rebellion in the North American colonies, what words to place in his dictionary, a critique of Goldsmith's latest drama or what he likes to eat, Johnson lives in this book. So does London. ( )
  JVioland | Jul 14, 2014 |
James Boswell and Samuel Johnson were unlikely friends: Boswell was a young Scottish nobleman with a penchant for drinking and whoring, while Johnson was poorer, much more devout (in theory, at least), and a good 30 years older. Yet throughout the course of this monumental work, Boswell describes his reverence for Johnson's intelligence, morality, and literary talents -- a reverence so extreme that Boswell took notes on almost every conversation he ever had with the older man. As a result, this biography is stuffed full of Boswell's personal anecdotes, letters both to and from Johnson, and first-person accounts of other contemporaries who knew him. Near the end of the book, Boswell states: "The character of Samuel Johnson has, I trust, been so developed in the course of this work, that they who have honoured it with a perusal, may be considered as well acquainted with him." And indeed, anyone who reads this book will come away with an extremely vivid picture of a remarkable man.

This book is so huge and deals with so many things that I don't quite know what to say about it. At first I was very intimidated, both by its length and by Boswell's flowery 18th-century prose. But even though it's not a quick read, this book contains a wealth of fascinating details about Johnson and the age in which he lived. I was struck by how literary the 18th century was, in the sense that seemingly anyone with a claim to intelligence was churning out books and pamphlets. In that way, Johnson's time is very similar to our own, where everybody can (and does) publish blogs, tweets, and other forms of instantaneous literature. I was also fascinated by Johnson's unique character; though intelligent, he was often pompous, narrow-minded, and abrasive. I frequently found myself underlining various Johnsonian sayings that were wise, or funny, or both -- but I would have hated to be forced to converse with him! Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the time period or who enjoys very thorough biographies!
  christina_reads | Dec 30, 2013 |
This is an abridgment of Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, which as it is runs to over 500 pages. I am glad I read it, but I’m also glad I read an abridgment (an ebook downloaded for free from The Gutenberg Project). In the preface the editor tells us he “omitted most of Boswell’s criticisms, comments, and notes, all of Johnson’s opinions in legal cases, most of the letters, and parts of the conversation dealing with matters which were of greater importance in Boswell’s day than now.” I don’t know I’d have been able to endure the full text--at least first time around. The book grew on me.

Johnson was famous as a literary critic (particularly of Shakespeare) and for his assembly of A Dictionary of the English Language. Boswell’s biography of the man has been described as “the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature.” I decided to read it because its one of the works in Good Reading’s “100 Significant Books” and I found it practically a college education by itself reading the books on that list.

I did find it enormously entertaining. Johnson is known for his wit, which is good because Boswell in his narrative initially struck me as singularly humorless--and far too adoring. At one point Boswell admits he “cannot help worshipping” Johnson. And although I in the end I found him rather endearing, at first it was hard for me to find much to adore in Johnson, who seemed through much of this to be such a sanctimonious, misogynist prig. Mind you, Boswell does warn that Johnson loved to be contrary, play devil’s advocate, so it can be hard at times to know what should be taken seriously. Nevertheless, a lot of Johnson’s views, his love of rank and monarchy, with everyone keeping their place, his contempt for democracy, was pretty consistent. I could put it down to the times, were I not aware that after all this is a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin. As an American, Johnson makes me glad we separated from the Mother Country. He was a devout Anglican and Tory and after reading his views I can have no doubt in his place and time I’d be a Whig, his bete noir. For example:

“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.”

And:

I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity should so absolutely ruin a young woman. Johnson. "Why no, Sir; it is the great principle which she is taught. When she has given up that principle, she has given up every notion of female honour and virtue, which are all included in chastity.

And:

He thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman. “Publick practice of any art... and staring in men’s faces, is very indelicate in a female.” (He also believed a husband would be disgraced by allowing his wife to sing publicly for hire.)

And:

[Johnson] had long indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For as early as 1769... he had said of them, “Sir, they are a race of convicts, and out to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging. (Johnson wrote a pamphlet attacking the American patriots: Taxation No Tyranny.)

At the same time there were lines that made me smile, or that I did find wise. For instance, Johnson, that compiler of a dictionary, put in this definition of a Lexicographer: “a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.” And I was taken with these two passages:

After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I shall never forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it THUS."

And:

To my question, whether we might not fortify our minds for the approach of death, he answered, in a passion, No, Sir, let it alone. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.” He added (with an earnest look,) 'A man knows it must be so, and submits. It will do him no good to whine.’

And there are so many sayings I’d heard of that I found could be traced to this biography--about second marriages: “the triumph of hope over experience.” “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” “Hell is paved with good intentions.” “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

And this paints not just a picture of Johnson, but his times and contemporaries and companions: Oliver Goldsmith, the writer, David Garrick the actor, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter, politician Edmund Burke, in particular, but mentions of historians Edward Gibbons and Mrs Macaulay, novelists Richardson and Fielding and Fanny Burney and Richard Sheridan the playwright--even King George III. I don’t know that I can say I closed the book loving Samuel Johnson--but I did wind up loving Boswell’s biography of him. ( )
3 vote LisaMaria_C | Oct 20, 2013 |
I always enjoy reading Boswell's accounts of conversations with Samuel Johnson--there are lots of paperback abridged editions and the complete, six volume edition is available free for download from the Gutenberg project [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a659]. ( )
  nmele | Apr 6, 2013 |
Johnson is one of the great characters of modern life. Witty, quotable, irascible, fierce in opinion, an intellectual bully, full of self-doubts and fears. Boswell is one of the great biographers, pioneering a technique of personal reminiscences and extensive quotation of conversations to elucidate the character of his subject. Boswell is also delightful for his candour and personal involvement in the story. ( )
  denmoir | Jan 25, 2012 |
Outstanding as much for the insight into Boswell's life as for the history of Johnson and his contemporaries. Johnson may have been a genius, but Boswell was a nicer person. ( )
2 vote librisissimo | Nov 15, 2010 |
This was a very long and wordy book dealing with Johnson's literary and erudite thinking. With over 600 pages Boswell had a huge collection of Samuel Johnson's mind. With time I found myself becoming more attuned to the real character of Johnson through the letters and quotes as recorded by Boswell.
The cataloguing of all this material was a real tour de force by Boswell and the real measure of this collection is the way it reflects mainly higher English society of the day. This, I believe, is what makes this book such an important contribution to literature.
Certainly, some might find this book difficult to read, possibly even ponderous, what with English style and spelling of the day, not to mention many words that need some research in a modern dictionary to find (e.g. aminadventure).
A good read and worth having in most serious libraries today. ( )
  breeks | Mar 26, 2010 |
"This book interests me-- fascinates me-- and yet I wish I could join heartily in that chorus of praise which the kind-hearted old bully has enjoyed." - Through the Magic Door, p. 51
  ACDoyleLibrary | Jan 21, 2010 |
This book is so widely and commonly referred to that it's hard to think what I can add. All I'll say is this: there are certain books that everyone knows they _should_ read, yet don't. This is probably one of them (Don Quixote may be another) but it's a shame. It's an easy read, and a pleasant one. Eighteenth Century England really comes alive in Boswell's writing. And of course, there are Johnson's bon mots throughout the book. ( )
  DavidGoldsteen | Nov 27, 2009 |
Boswell must have worshipped the ground Johnson walked on. How else could he have meticulously kept track of so many conversations with the man? I'd say he kept a voice recorder, but it's the wrong century. Anyway, even in the apparently abridged version we are taken to 18th century England, behind the scenes with some of the time's leading intellectuals and their friends. Johnson certainly had a way with words, though I couldn't completely agree with all of his views (his disdain for the Scottish was off-putting.) HIs love for tea made up for some of this. Great armchair by the fireplace with a brandy reading. ( )
  PensiveCat | Aug 13, 2009 |
Excellent! Johnson was great master of conversation and you can grasp some of his wisdom from here. Second part of book brings recollection of many conversations that Johnson had in Boswell's company. You can randomly open there to read and still enjoy it. ( )
  vidra | Jun 14, 2009 |
1533 The Life of Samuel Johnson L.L.D., by James Boswell Esq. (read 7 Sep 1979) I am glad to say that before I became 51 I am able to say I have read Boswell's Life of Johnson. I have been reading it for nearly three weeks--it is a full 1200 pages long. The book is not too bad--it is rather amusing to read Boswell on Boswell, which there is a lot of in the book. There are also a lot of things one should remember in this book, but I doubt I can locate them. I won't find it, but I too was struck by (1) If a person prayed all the time, he'd be considered crazy. But someone who never prays, is not even noticed; (2) If a wife continually talked about the Arian heresy she'd be hard to live with. Johnson is the most famous person born on Sept 18. He was born in 1709 and died Dec 13, 1784. ( )
  Schmerguls | Jan 1, 2009 |
The best way to read Boswell's Life of Johnson is this way: via a somewhat cheesy, "classic library" volume of a Great Classics type of series. The book looks like one of those books you would find in the movie set of a lawyer's office, trying to look distinguished and old, although it feels plasticy.

We learn from other sources (outside of Boswell) that Boswell himself was something of an annoying 18th century star f__ker, but thank God he was - because reading this book is like being a part of a hundred dinner and parlour conversations with the wits and men of power in 18th century England. Funny bastards some of them were, too.

Skill in the art of conversation was the most highly prized talent, and Johnson was considered king of them all. This is a world steeped in The Classics, post Renaissance but pre Industrial/Scientific Revolution - that sweet spot where men were expected to venture to come up with a theory and interpretation about anything: how to talk, the way to cook a meal, where to travel, you name it. And Johnson always had an interesting and strong Theory of Anything.

Somehow it seems like nobody worked, they were just able to go to each other's houses, eat too much, drink hard, and talk smack about each other full time. Good times.

Today, Johnson would be considered a blowhard; narrow minded, reactionary, pompous, and egotistical. But that's why he's actually interesting.

This was a cool era because you would address your best friend as "Sir".

Ironically, Boswell's writing holds up better than Johnson's himself, but who cares about that history of literature crap.

If each book had a smell, this book would smell like really good roast beef, with some hard licks thrown in.

Sir, I am,

Your most humble reviewer,

&tc &tc ( )
3 vote bradleygilbert | Nov 13, 2008 |
At times it can be dry--especially when Boswell isn't relating his wonderful anecdotes. And Johnson can frequently be obnoxious--he often refuses to hear other people's opinions, he blindly defends king, country, and government from even the mildest criticism, and though he addresses his debaters as "Sir", he often ends the conversation with his metaphorical fingers stuck in his ears, chanting "Nyah-nyah you're wrong you're wrong!" ...Which is perhaps why the book is so charming. The first 200 pages or so are "Eh", since they are almost strictly fact-based, but once the ale starts flowing, it's like someone recorded the conversations of the most literate, witty alcoholics that ever existed. In fact, I wouldn't mind being the latest member of the Literary Club, and as soon as my time machine is done, it's cakes and ale for me! ( )
4 vote uncultured | Jun 11, 2008 |
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