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Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading.(Review)

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From: The Modern Language Review
Date: 19990701
Author:Ingram, Allan

Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading. By ROBERT DEMARIA, JR. Baltimore, MD, and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1997. xviii + 270 pp. 33 [pounds ssterling].

'Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. Johnson. "I have looked into it." "What (said Elphinston,) have you not read it through?" Johnson, offended at being thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, answered tartly, "No, Sir; do you read books through?".' (p. 237)

Johnson could certainly be a slovenly, or impatient, reader, and his ...

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