Life of Johnson, by Boswell

[Goozfraba]

Who here has read what is said to be the "best biography ever written" ?

I've read Boswell's London Journal, from when he was a young man of twenty-two or twenty-three...and it was nothing less than brilliant! I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to read his accounts of trying (and eventually succeeding) to sleep with a well-known actress of his time, corresponding with various intellectual giants like Hume and, of course, Johnson...and above all, his ability to keep such a well-written and ample journal, with entries almost daily, in a time before typewriters or word processors, AND in the midst of such a busily debauched lifestyle.

I've read parts of the Life, and found Johnson to be one of the most verbally impressive characters I've ever read. Soon I will climb the entire twelve-hundred-page mountain.

Who has read this, and what do you think--of Boswell, Johnson, and the writings by or about them?

[MikeK]

I've not yet read it, although it's been on my "to read" list for quite a while.

One of my favorite Johnson quotes comes (I believe) from Boswell's biography. When Johnson was working on his dictionary he was told that the French Academy Dictionary took 40 years to complete. The Academy consisted of 40 people. Johnson replied (paraphrasing): "40 years times 40 people is 1600. As 1600 is to one, so is the worth of an Englishman to a Frenchman." Or something like that. I'm too lazy right now to look up the exact quote.

[stlukesguild]

What I have read of Boswell's Life of Johnson and his Journals I have greatly enjoyed. I would also recommend Johnson's and Boswell's travel journals from their tour of Scotland and the Hebrides.

[Logos]

Thanks for bringing this up Goozfraba. While Boswell is yet to be added to the site, we do host a number of Johnson's works:
http://www.online-literature.com/samuel-johnson/

They are both great authors and thinkers, glad to see appreciation of them :)

[Dori]

I read the first page or so, but decided to was too large an endeavor at the time.

It's on my TBR pile. :)

[nebish]

Boswell's biog of The Great Cham, SJ, is tireless and exhaustive, but has nothng like the sparkiness and lubriciousness of The Journal. I found that Boswell came across in the Life of J as rather too assiduous, doting, sycophantic; in his Journal he seems more naive but not altogether more worthy - the way he took advantage of servant girls etc: I was somewhat gratified that he suffered physically for his excesses (and it was amusing that he couldn't quite stop himself from further risking his peace of mind & body). The writing was however far more lively and eventful.

[Goozfraba]

Nebish, I'm not sure you can be TOO doting or sycophantic when talking about Dr. Johnson. He was quite an amazing person, by many accounts.

And I don't remember Boswell "taking advantage" of servant girls. He had prostitutes, visited brothels, courted actresses...am I forgetting something in the Journal?

I'm not sure if you write or not, but capturing so many voices so impeccably, especially one as distinct and tortuous as Johnson's...it's something not many people can do.

[nebish]

Didn't Boswell leave his Scottish home after putting a servant into trouble (long time since I read it but I am sure it was some such seigneurial indulgence)? As for Dr J: "Dr Samuel Johnson (Englishman 1709-84 Occupation:Language Fixer and Big Mouth)" - Jeanette Winterson in "Art and Lies". He was certainly clever and witty, but he was disgusting as well (fat, smelly, self-opinionated, misogynistic). As for great biography writing, Johnson's own Lives of the Poets (Savage especially) takes some licking.

[Goozfraba]

I'm not sure if Boswell left Scotland after hanky-panky with a servant girl. I certainly don't think he left BECAUSE of such an affair...It was my understanding that he left because his father wanted him to be a lawyer (or the equivalent of a lawyer in Scotland...a "laird" I think it's called) and Boswell didn't want to be one. So his father gave him money to keep himself for a year, and travel, and figure out what he wanted to do.

I'm very skeptical of Jeanette Winterson, and people like her, who try to take historical literary figures "down a peg." It's like a Chihuaha nipping at the heels of a giant. I wish Johnson were alive to take a copy of his Dictionary and beat her over the head with it.

[ex ponto]

Every line of dr Johnson's I've read seemed somehow exciting and interesting to me.
But as the language is difficult for me to understand, I hesitate to look for more.