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"I don't need to tell you what a splendid service Oxford performs by having the complete Life available inexpensively and with Chapman's deft annotations and Rogers's smart and useful introduction."--Alexander Poffit, University of North Texas
."..An elegant study of currents and of undercurrents in the travellers' separate accounts of their journey to the Western Islands. Reading this book, we realize better than before what Johnson and Boswell, separately and together, were so passionately in quest of...be grateful for the imaginative light [the book] throws on the mythic-seeming journey and on those mythic-seeming voyagers whose travels still haunt some of our waking dreams."--The Albion
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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The most celebrated English biography is a group portrait in which extraordinary man paints the picture of a dozen more. At the centre of a brilliant circle which included Burke, Reynolds, Garrick, Fanny Burney and even George III, Boswell captures the powerful, troubled and witty figure of Samuel Johnson, who towers above them all. Yet this is also an intimate picture of domestic life, which mingles the greatest talkers of a talkative age with the hero's humbler friends in a picture which is, before all things, humane. This is a new, corrected, rest and reprinted edition. At 14. 99 for the complete edition of the Life in 1344 pages, it compares with Penguin's abridged edition of just 300 pages of text at 6. 99 and OUP's World Classics unabridged edition printed on newsprint at 10. 99.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Onee of the funniest books I have read in a long time, and ironically it really shouldn't be--after all, an 18th century bio should be dry and dull. The book is anecdotal, basically comprising bits of dialogue and images from Johnson's life, but is rendered in such a droll and vivid fashion that it held me to the last. Johnson and Boswell form an almost Laurel-and-Hardy like team of call and response humor, with Johnson's blustering wit always triumphing. Boswell, an intemperate Scot of aristocratic birth, both falls prey to the Tory, common-born, common-sense Johnson's wit and intellect and renders then in a fashion that makes you wish you could have met him. Johnson's directness in his opinions is refreshing in today's questioning post-modern climate, a bracing and entertaining read full of rudeness and delight.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the best biography ever written; so good, in fact, that you should get the unabridged version. The most fascinating thing about Johnson is not his one-off witticisms or words of wisdom, but his character as it slowly unfolds in Boswell's writing, and the fuller the picture you get, the better.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed reading this biography very much, finding Boswell an amazingly adroit reporter and his subject fascinating and wise. Johnson was full of shrewdness and good sense, along with amusing biases and unusual mannerisms, just the sort of person to ask to liven up a dinner. The book is both humorous and moving, written in a lively style, and good for repeated readings through the years.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of the most famous biographies
To summarise Samuel Johnson, I would call him a lexicographer, poet and pub philosopher and it is course his English dictionary for which he is justly remembered. Read more
Published 29 days ago by P. W. H. Smith
Boswell de luxe
This book is too well known to say much about it in such a small space. What is worth commenting about is the terrific quality of the binding, printing and paper. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Edwinsson
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