Book Description
One of America's most respected authorities on the blues has delved deeply into the recorded legacy of Robert Johnson, transcribing each of his songs with dedicated accuracy and distilling the meaning of every sound and phrase. ... Read more

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For anyone studying the life and times of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson As Book Reviewer: A Duty To Examine The Labors Of The Learned by Brian Hanley (Associate Professor of English, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado) is a dedicated and thorough critical analysis of the forty-seven book reviews that Samuel Johnson contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine, the Literary Magazine, and the Critical Review. Each review offers new insights into Johnson's literate and questing mind, and the meticulous analyses bear the fruit of painstaking study and framework reference. A new and aptly presented look at the work and character of this notable figure, Samuel Johnson As Book Reviewer is strongly recommended reading for anyone studying the life and times of Samuel Johnson. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Johnson's complete 1755 Dictionary runs to 2,300 pages of definitions and literary examples, a preface, a history of the language, and a grammar. The Cassell modern selection is a mere 463 pages, but an excellent start. This is a highly individual, often idiosyncratic dictionary, and most people now check entries more for verbal pleasure and historical curiosity than usage. Though Johnson began his dictionary in a prescriptive mode--he would tell the reader what was right and what not--he ended by being surprisingly descriptive. There is of course his concern with low words and his loathing of cant, his self-knowing definitions of grubstreet ( "Originally the name of a street in Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems...") and lexicographer ("a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge..."). In their introduction, E. L. McAdam and George Milne point out that Johnson "had no prejudice against merely vulgar words, and may have enjoyed them." He does, after all, include among other phrases, fart, complete with two examples. Jonathan Swift's is hilarious, John Suckling's surprisingly wistful: "Love is the fart / Of every heart; / It pains a man when 'tis kept close; / And others doth offend, when 'tis set loose." Among other acute joys are the forward-looking verb to foreslack, "To neglect by idleness," and the first entry under to hoodwink, which awakens one to its physical beginnings, "To blind with something bound over the eyes."Book Description

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A literary delight
The greatness of Johnson's Dictionary is in good part in its literary quality. Johnson is a writer of great verve, humor, satiric sharpness, moral insight and wit. The Dictionary is of course not to be chewed and digested, but rather to be tasted for its special treats. An abridgement like this provides the reader with a more portable source of pleasure, a volume which can be schlepped along , and read on bus or train. I would strongly recommend that along with this work the reader get a hold of Hitchings work on the story of themaking of the Dictionary. ... Read more

Book Description
Samuel Johnson was one of the most important literary figures of the 18th century, which was sometimes known as the Age of Johnson. He authored a pioneering dictionary of the English language, edited Shakespeare, composed poetry and drama, and wrote numerous prose works on moral, philosophical, religious, political, and domestic concerns. Immortalized through Boswell's biography, he is as well-known for his traits and habits (including his witty and combative manner of conversation) as for his prodigious achievements in the world of letters. This encyclopedia is a comprehensive guide to Johnson and his milieu. This pioneering volume contains more than 650 alphabetically arranged entries on every aspect of Johnson's life, career, and personality. It describes each of his works in detail, examining such matters as composition, publication, and reception. It gives up-to-date accounts of his attitude on key themes and concepts, and explores his central ideas on literary, moral, political, social, and religious questions. It provides biographies of all the persons with whom Johnson had any sort of real contact, ranging from his close friends in the world of the arts and publishing, to his domestic intimates and servants, his extended family, and even his cat. A full system of cross-referencing allows readers to locate subjects and entries with ease. This is a one-stop aid which will enable students and readers of Johnson to locate almost any fact about him quickly and easily, and will provide guidance for any more detailed research which may be called for. ... Read more

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AN EXCELLENT REFERENCE!
This work gathers in one convenient volume a wealth of information from many sources.Anyone reading the works of Samuel Johnson or James Boswell, or reading about Samuel Johnson or James Boswell, will find it immensely useful and endlessly browseable.It is expensive; but I cannot recommend it too highly for anyone who loves the study of Samuel Johnson and his world. I believe there is no other comparable reference work on this subject. ... Read more

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Best of the best
Samuel Johnson's essays contain more wisdom per square inch than any other writer I've encountered. Like any period, the eighteenth century had its flaws, but Johnson's prose rises above all of them. His respect for common sense and his deep faith keep him safe from the delusions of perfectability that infected many of his contemporaries.

An incredible set of wide-ranging essays.
Samuel Johnson wrote in many genres, and the essay is one for which he is well-known.Of the three series of his essays, the Rambler is usaully hailed as being his best.This is the only complete edition inprint.

Johnson was a great critic, a moralist, and a sharp observer ofhuman behavior.The Rambler essays cover all three aspects of hisopinions.

In literary criticism, we have discussions of pastoral poetry,of Milton's blank verse (long before his biography of Milton in "TheLives of the Poets"), and a stunning essay on the superiority ofbiography as a literary form.

We have his moralist perspective, and hishuman observations, combined in essays on the foolishness of tellingsecrets, procrastination, self-consciousness, anger, regret, perseverance,etc.

Admittedly, Johnson's syntax can be difficult, and occasionally hewill send you to your dictionary.But your efforts will be rewarded,because Johnson's views are written from the perspective of someone who isall too familiar with his own flaws, and knows the difference between theideals he proposes and our/his own performance in attempting to achievethose goals.

Contains perhaps the greatest prose in the English language
Samuel Johnson is arguably the greatest prose stylist the English language has produced, and contained within the two hundred or so Rambler essays written by Johnson (a few of the essays were written by others by invitation from Johnson) are perhaps Johnson's greatest work.Not every essay is a classic, but many of them are and bear reading and rereading.

Samuel Johnson was a brilliant but undisciplined scholar.Although he was prolific as a writer, this was due more to how effortless it was for him rather than to a well-regimented schedule.One of the reasons he undertook the projects of writing these essays--which were published every few days in pamphlet form--was to force him to concentrate on writing down his ideas on morals, art, literature, or whatever struck him at the time.Even so, he was frequently employed in writing even at the last minute.We are told that some of the essays were still in the process of being written even as they were being set at the printer; a printer's devil would sprint from Johnson's rooms to the press with each page.What is astonishing is how perfect the essays are in their raw form.Johnson surely was the greatest first-draft writer in the history of the language.All of his contemporaries attest to the fact that he spoke precisely as he wrote.

Even if Johnson had been given the opportunity to edit and improve his writing, what would that have accomplished?How can one improve on a passage like this?

"A frequent and attentive prospect of that moment, which must put a period to all our schemes, and deprive us of all our acquisitions, is, indeed, of the utmost efficacy to the just and rational regulation of our lives; nor would ever any thing wicked, or often any thing absurd, be undertaken or prosecuted by him who should begin every day with a serious reflection, that he is born to die." (Rambler 17)

There is unfortunately no good one-volume edition of the Rambler essays.The Bate anthology regretfully neglects the moral essays for those more aesthetic and literary in nature, which is tragic because Johnson is a religious moralist as much as he is a literary critic, and even the critical side cannot be understood without an appreciation of Johnson's religious and moral convictions and sensibilities.As a side note, I could add that this is typical of Bate, and is especially in evidence in his otherwise marvelous biography of Johnson, where he tends to treat Johnson's very powerful religious beliefs as an odd sort of psychological aberration.

It is impossible to recommend a purchase this expensive for the casual reader, but as owner of the three-volume set, I can attest that any lover of Johnson will find him or herself going to these volumes and especially particular essays, again and again and again. ... Read more

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The Doctor is In
Samuel Johnson was in his era what E.F. Hutton was in his. When the Doctor spoke, people listened. His sidekick and amanuensis, James Boswell, of course immortalized his utterances in one of the grandest biographies ever written. What this volume (and similar collections) indicates is that Johnson was equally irrepressible in print.

Johnson was nothing if not opinionated. Yet, coming from him, they are never merely opinions. There is always a great degree of heft and weight supporting them (no pun intended, as he was an immense man physically as well as intellectually)). Though he received only an honorary degree from Oxford (he was too poor to remain at school), he was one of the most learned men of any era. The range and breadth of his reading is unsurpassed by any other major literary figure, with the possible exception of Milton. Yet Johnson never comes across as overblown, nor does he ever trumpet his learning. His writing is informed be a sense of humility and compassion, that no doubt were among the attributes that endeared him to so many of the leading lights of his generation. And of course, he also had a marvelous sense of humor, which also comes through in this collection. Unfortunately for him, his good moods were often followed by serious bouts of depression, which is reflected in his most famous poem, "The Vanity of Human Wishes." By today's standards, he would be diagnosed most probably as a manic-depressive. There were many days when he found it difficult to summon the resolve to get out of bed and face the day. What saved him was his naturally gregarious nature. He thoroughly enjoyed the company he found in London's taverns.

His compassion for others is legendary. He thought that the character of a country was determined by the degree to which it ministered to the poor. He was an ardent foe, as exhibited in one of his "Idler" articles, of so-called scientific experimentation on animals. He viscerally describes the cruel and inhumane use that dogs were subjected to by anatomy researchers in his era. It is one of the most compellingly moving diatribes against this still-controversial subject that one is likely to encounter.One of the marks of great authors is that they say things we sometimes think of ourselves in such an adroit and pithy manner that we think they could not be better expressed. Take this Johnson quote on "idleness," for example: "As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his own duty and real employment, naturally endeavors to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does anything but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favor."

Dr. Johnson was also one of the foremost literary critics in history. Though one may not always agree with his assessments, one has to acknowledge the force of his arguments. In his encomiums to such writers as Shakespeare, Milton and Pope, he intermittently sprinkles censure. For those of us who don't like to see our icons brought down to earth, this is sometimes painful. What Johnson is really doing, however, is showing us that our own judgments are often unbalanced, and we fail to see what are real flaws in the great edifices. Johnson is never interested in pure panegyrics. His task is to examine the entire picture and to report as accurately as possible the grandeur, as well as the shortcomings of a work, whether it is Pope's Iliad, Shakespeare's Hamlet, or Milton's Paradise Lost. If there is a last word that could be said to have been delivered on these monumental works, it may well be Johnson's.

If you haven't visited the Doctor recently, do yourself some good and remedy the situation. ... Read more

Book Description
A unique one-volume selection of Samuel Johnson’s writings on spiritual and moral topics provides an unusually inspiring portrait of the man and his thought.

Most readers know Dr. Johnson (1709—1784) as the formidable compiler of his famous Dictionary and as the witty conversationalist portrayed in Boswell’s Life. By contrast, this book–which draws on little-known unsigned sermons he wrote for hire for clergy friends, his private prayers and devotions, essays, poems, diaries, letters, and even key definitions from the Dictionary–offers a rare opportunity to discover Johnson’s rich insight and consoling spirituality gathered in one place. Boswell observed that "He was a sincere and zealous ChristianÉ. He was steady and inflexible in maintaining the obligations of religion and morality; both from a regard for the order of society, and from a veneration for the Great Source of all order." This Vintage Spiritual Classics Original opens a window on the moral universe of the leading English writer of the eighteenth century. ... Read more

Product Description
Includes 20 short biographies. ... Read more

Book Description
This Companion provides a unique introduction and guide to the works and life of one of the key figures in English literary history. The source of endless familiar aphorisms, the compiler of the first great dictionary in English, the greatest of essayists, and one of the most distinctive characters and conversationalists in our literary culture, Johnson is here surveyed in his entirety. Chapters on the major works, his life, conversation, letters and critical reception appear alongside fresh thematic essays, a chronology and a guide to further reading.Download Description
This Companion provides a unique introduction and guide to the works and life of one of the key figures in English literary history. The source of endless familiar aphorisms, the compiler of the first great dictionary in English, the greatest of essayists, and one of the most distinctive characters and conversationalists in our literary culture, Johnson is here surveyed in his entirety. Chapters on the major works, his life, conversation, letters and critical reception appear alongside fresh thematic essays, a chronology and a guide to further reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very fine introduction to the works and themes of Johnson.
The challenge of segregating Johnson's works into their themes and forms must have been daunting, but Greg Clingham and the several writers who contributed to this edition have done a marvelous job of providing anintroduction to Johnson and his works.Chapters examine his poetry, hisessays, his Dictionary, his attitudes towards religion, and women...Thisbook will be appreciated by beginning and intermediate Johnsonians, andshould be read. ... Read more