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bekabooboo's review against another edition
4.0
Reading the reviews, I am itching to download a copy and reread this little by little, because it's been so long since I read it. I love this kind of anecdotally written book that gives me glimpses of a different time and into the lives of the movers and shakers of the day. I remember being very entertained by this, although I wouldn't strictly call it a biography.
pauloleary's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
robertrivasplata's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.5
I can't believe I read the whole thing!
More than 5 years after starting on Pat Barker's great introduction from 1979, I finally finished Life of Johnson, & commenced to re-read the introduction, which made more sense having read the work. Life of Johnson really is a good book to read in little bits and pieces over the course of five years or so. Now that I am finished with this great work, the time has come for me to embark on the great work of writing the goodreads review of The Life of Johnson. Good book for picking up and reading random excerpts. Perfect read to look like you are engrossed in a cerebral read & not interested in conversation, similar to the Accidental Tourist's use of "Miss Macintosh, my Darling". If you want to return to your place, you just flip back to the beginning of whatever dinner party, conversation, you left off in the middle of. Perhaps the most true biography in that it highlights how much of even an extraordinary life is mostly a show about nothing. Scratches my itch for Georgian-era literary English & also has very many quotable quotes, such as: "Never impose tasks upon mortals. To require two things is the way to have them both undone", or, "Sir, your wife under pretense of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods." That second quote has the advantage of being both humorous & puzzling. There are actually very many hilarious moments in the Life of Johnson, with many other quotes too long & too numerous to reproduce & still have a readable goodreads review. Apart from the amusement factor, The Life of Johnson is also provides a great look at the publishing & literary world of 18th century London. Boswell also shows some of the work that went into historical & biographical research, showing us his & Johnson's letters to librarians, scholars, & acquaintances of their respective biographical subjects. Questions such as the distinction between a Physician & a Doctor of Medicine are also of interest, at the very least shedding light on the fact that those were the types of things people talked about in 1775.
More than 5 years after starting on Pat Barker's great introduction from 1979, I finally finished Life of Johnson, & commenced to re-read the introduction, which made more sense having read the work. Life of Johnson really is a good book to read in little bits and pieces over the course of five years or so. Now that I am finished with this great work, the time has come for me to embark on the great work of writing the goodreads review of The Life of Johnson. Good book for picking up and reading random excerpts. Perfect read to look like you are engrossed in a cerebral read & not interested in conversation, similar to the Accidental Tourist's use of "Miss Macintosh, my Darling". If you want to return to your place, you just flip back to the beginning of whatever dinner party, conversation, you left off in the middle of. Perhaps the most true biography in that it highlights how much of even an extraordinary life is mostly a show about nothing. Scratches my itch for Georgian-era literary English & also has very many quotable quotes, such as: "Never impose tasks upon mortals. To require two things is the way to have them both undone", or, "Sir, your wife under pretense of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods." That second quote has the advantage of being both humorous & puzzling. There are actually very many hilarious moments in the Life of Johnson, with many other quotes too long & too numerous to reproduce & still have a readable goodreads review. Apart from the amusement factor, The Life of Johnson is also provides a great look at the publishing & literary world of 18th century London. Boswell also shows some of the work that went into historical & biographical research, showing us his & Johnson's letters to librarians, scholars, & acquaintances of their respective biographical subjects. Questions such as the distinction between a Physician & a Doctor of Medicine are also of interest, at the very least shedding light on the fact that those were the types of things people talked about in 1775.
michael5000's review against another edition
3.0
So, sure, to a certain extent this is a fawning portrait of an old windbag by his adoring fanboy. And, it must be said that the sparkling wit often does not live up to its reputation. On the other hand, old windbags are people too, and after a few hundred pages you start to develop some affection for ol' Sam Johnson, and Bosworth, and especially for their pal Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous painter, who clearly had the patience of Job to put up with them over the years.
If nothing else, it's a great window into the 18th century. Towards the end of Johnson's life, for example, everyone is clearly all a'buzz about the newly invented passenger balloon; Boswell takes for granted that his readers will remember when balloons were the sensation of the day, which makes their intrusion into his story that much more striking from this remove. (Johnson, characteristically, thinks that all the fuss about this newfangled "flight" is foolish, since people have always been able to climb mountains if they wanted to see what things were like at higher elevations.)
It is, to be sure, rather dull reading. And yet something kept me on task through all 619 pages.
If nothing else, it's a great window into the 18th century. Towards the end of Johnson's life, for example, everyone is clearly all a'buzz about the newly invented passenger balloon; Boswell takes for granted that his readers will remember when balloons were the sensation of the day, which makes their intrusion into his story that much more striking from this remove. (Johnson, characteristically, thinks that all the fuss about this newfangled "flight" is foolish, since people have always been able to climb mountains if they wanted to see what things were like at higher elevations.)
It is, to be sure, rather dull reading. And yet something kept me on task through all 619 pages.
quaintrelle333's review against another edition
A classic! An exceptional autobiography about one of the great scholars.
srturner's review against another edition
3.0
Long; very long. Samuel Johnson, himself, complained about the difficulty of reading two-hundred year old fiction. My take aways: Dr. Johnson was a sharp conversationalist, who mixed with the literary glitterati of his day and had his own version of an 18th century "Entourage".