The Life Of Samuel Johnson Lld The Complete Unabridged Edition In 6 Volumes Including The Journal Diary The Abridged And Edited Edition By Charles

Author : James Boswell
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781541384460
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (844 download)

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Download or read book The Life of Samuel Johnson LL. D. written by James Boswell and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. A Biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson James Boswell Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood, Professor of English at Princeton University The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) is a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson written by James Boswell. The work was a popular and critical success when first published. It is regarded as an important stage in the development of the modern genre of biography; many have claimed it as the greatest biography written in English, but some modern critics object that the work cannot be considered a proper biography. While Boswell's personal acquaintance with his subject only began in 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered the entirety of Johnson's life by means of additional research. The biography takes many critical liberties with Johnson's life, as Boswell makes various changes to Johnson's quotations and even censors many comments. Nonetheless, modern biographers have found Boswell's biography an important source of information on Johnson and his times. ------- In making this abridgement of Boswell's Life of Johnson I have 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 have kept in mind an old habit, common enough, I dare say, among its devotees, of opening the book of random, and reading wherever the eye falls upon a passage of especial interest. All such passages, I hope, have been retained, and enough of the whole book to illustrate all the phases of Johnson's mind and of his time which Boswell observed. Loyal Johnsonians may look upon such a book with a measure of scorn. I could not have made it, had I not believed that it would be the means of drawing new readers to Boswell, and eventually of finding for them in the complete work what many have already found - days and years of growing enlightenment and happy companionship, and an innocent refuge from the cares and perturbations of life. Princeton, June 28, 1917.