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The Letters of Samuel Johnson.(Brief Article)

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From: The Economist (US)
Date: 19920509
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THE vast reputation of Samuel Johnson is like that of some fabulous city: there are glorious fragments at the edges, huge patterns in the sand, and the awed reports of ancient travellers. Yet somehow the full explanation of Johnson's greatnes--the centre itself--is missing.

He wrote his biographies of the English poets; his beautiful Rasselas; his few poems. He wrote his famous dictionary. Above all, there is James Boswell's "Life". But no single work of imaginative literature exists to explain, by itself, why Johnson is so widely agreed to be worthy of wonder. You know ...

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