Boswell: Bufoon or genius?

[Ecurb]

Boswell's "Life of Johnson" is widely considered to be a seminal biography. In it, Boswell often portrays himself as a bufoon and fool. How could such a man create a work of such genius? Was Johnson Boswell's dramatic creation? These are the questions Jorge Luis Borges asks in his short essay in the current New York Review of Books. Borges, Boswell, Johnson, MacCauley, Shaw, and Goethe all make appearances in this short essay, which explores the nature of literature:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jul/28/lecture-johnson-and-boswell/

[cafolini]

Boswell's "Life of Johnson" is widely considered to be a seminal biography. In it, Boswell often portrays himself as a bufoon and fool. How could such a man create a work of such genius? Was Johnson Boswell's dramatic creation? These are the questions Jorge Luis Borges asks in his short essay in the current New York Review of Books. Borges, Boswell, Johnson, MacCauley, Shaw, and Goethe all make appearances in this short essay, which explores the nature of literature:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jul/28/lecture-johnson-and-boswell/

But a buffoon is a genius joking about his idiotic intoxication and a genius if the intoxicated taking the buffoon seriously. It's the same character.

[WICKES]

C S Lewis writes somewhere that he once kept a diary so as to record the best conversation of his fellow Oxford professors, but that no matter how he tried he could never match Boswell.

[ennison]

Boswell was a bit of a whore really both literally and metaphorically. His writings are fascinating but he was in several ways repulsive.

[Pen Name]

Boswell was a bit of a whore really both literally and metaphorically. His writings are fascinating but he was in several ways repulsive.


Repulsive to whom, not me, he just liked bonking some bird (any woman for that matter) :drool5: behind the Dog and Duck or in the park. He gives us a good insight into 18th Century London and Britain, and not just his one sided view, he observes quite well, if you mix these in with the earlier 'Addison' then one can get a good image of the Capital and its life
:yawnb: