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grubstlodger's review against another edition
4.0
The life of Savage was the first piece I read by Samuel Johnson. I fell in love immediately. His smooth sentences that packed in huge amounts of information was a massive pull for me. Several years having passed, I read a greater range of Johnson’s lives and… the life of Savage is still my favourite.
The intimate nature of it, the small personal details and the way he builds an astonishingly clear picture of an utterly irritating yet charming man make it soar over the others. Johnson may have opinions on Milton and Swift and Pope (and my goodness, he does) but it doesn’t have the immediacy of the Savage piece. I’ve had people like Savage kip on my sofa, people with talents who are entertaining but who also feel they deserve to be supported by everyone else because of those talents. Not only do I feel I know Savage, but I share as mixed a relationship with him as Johnson did, all because of that lovely writing.
The Cowley piece wasn’t at all interesting about Cowley. It would appear that he was very talented as a child and then pursued poetry in the style of John Donne, a style Johnson names ‘metaphysical poetry’. His discussion of this form is very interesting. He defines it as a style of the head, with lots of word-play and idea-play but lacking in the emotional heart and soul that makes great poetry great. I’ve complained about some episodes of Dr Who for the same reason.
Milton was an odd one, as Johnson’s dislike of the man and his politics was so apparent (though he does praise Milton’s consistency in his beliefs) but obviously admires ‘Paradise Lost’. His breakdown on the genius of its plan, his arguments for why it is a poem of big emotions and ideas, written by a poet who can handle size (if not minutiae) made me take down my copy of the poem - and remember why I find it so oppressive and heavy going.
The Dryden entry was a long one, which mainly praised Dryden for his critical works, though later, in Pope’s entry, Johnson confesses himself to be a huge Dryden fan. He expresses how the poems seem to be effortless, like the words ‘falling into their natural places’, but it was not enough to have me pulling down any Dryden.
Gay is rather shrugged off, as he sort of was by the Scriblerians - he was the Scriblerian Goldsmith. Congreve is shrugged off also, he’s mainly a playwright and writes pleasing fluff in verse.
The Swift entry mainly seems to exist so Johnson can lambast Swift for his grumpy demeanour. While Johnson is willing to grant Swift success in his writings - as far as they had an impact - he is barely able to countenance them as even worth his bother as literature. He reckons ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ to be only interesting in their oddness, and think ‘Tale of the Tub’ might be too good to come from Swift’s pen.
As for Pope, Johnson is such as fan, that he is more wiling to soothe over his faults. Johnson enjoys pointing out how much the critics really did bother Pope, and from this angle, his life would seem to be a sad decline into grump, obstinate critic baiting. Pope was the poet in the selection who I have already read the most and Johnson made me eager to read more.
The last in the selection was Gray. Johnson seems to prefer him to his works (and thought his travel writing best overall) but I prefer Kit Smart’s description of Gray: ‘He walks as if he has fouled his small clothes and looks as if he smelt it’
Overall, this may be my least favourite Johnson performance. I find the subject of poets and their lives too narrow and although Johnson can (and does) create some wonderful quotes and moments from the subject, it doesn’t let him really stretch his legs and go romping.
The intimate nature of it, the small personal details and the way he builds an astonishingly clear picture of an utterly irritating yet charming man make it soar over the others. Johnson may have opinions on Milton and Swift and Pope (and my goodness, he does) but it doesn’t have the immediacy of the Savage piece. I’ve had people like Savage kip on my sofa, people with talents who are entertaining but who also feel they deserve to be supported by everyone else because of those talents. Not only do I feel I know Savage, but I share as mixed a relationship with him as Johnson did, all because of that lovely writing.
The Cowley piece wasn’t at all interesting about Cowley. It would appear that he was very talented as a child and then pursued poetry in the style of John Donne, a style Johnson names ‘metaphysical poetry’. His discussion of this form is very interesting. He defines it as a style of the head, with lots of word-play and idea-play but lacking in the emotional heart and soul that makes great poetry great. I’ve complained about some episodes of Dr Who for the same reason.
Milton was an odd one, as Johnson’s dislike of the man and his politics was so apparent (though he does praise Milton’s consistency in his beliefs) but obviously admires ‘Paradise Lost’. His breakdown on the genius of its plan, his arguments for why it is a poem of big emotions and ideas, written by a poet who can handle size (if not minutiae) made me take down my copy of the poem - and remember why I find it so oppressive and heavy going.
The Dryden entry was a long one, which mainly praised Dryden for his critical works, though later, in Pope’s entry, Johnson confesses himself to be a huge Dryden fan. He expresses how the poems seem to be effortless, like the words ‘falling into their natural places’, but it was not enough to have me pulling down any Dryden.
Gay is rather shrugged off, as he sort of was by the Scriblerians - he was the Scriblerian Goldsmith. Congreve is shrugged off also, he’s mainly a playwright and writes pleasing fluff in verse.
The Swift entry mainly seems to exist so Johnson can lambast Swift for his grumpy demeanour. While Johnson is willing to grant Swift success in his writings - as far as they had an impact - he is barely able to countenance them as even worth his bother as literature. He reckons ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ to be only interesting in their oddness, and think ‘Tale of the Tub’ might be too good to come from Swift’s pen.
As for Pope, Johnson is such as fan, that he is more wiling to soothe over his faults. Johnson enjoys pointing out how much the critics really did bother Pope, and from this angle, his life would seem to be a sad decline into grump, obstinate critic baiting. Pope was the poet in the selection who I have already read the most and Johnson made me eager to read more.
The last in the selection was Gray. Johnson seems to prefer him to his works (and thought his travel writing best overall) but I prefer Kit Smart’s description of Gray: ‘He walks as if he has fouled his small clothes and looks as if he smelt it’
Overall, this may be my least favourite Johnson performance. I find the subject of poets and their lives too narrow and although Johnson can (and does) create some wonderful quotes and moments from the subject, it doesn’t let him really stretch his legs and go romping.
elisabethl's review against another edition
4.0
I've been on a late 18th/early 19th century reading kick lately, all of which started with Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of the Scotland, and has ranged afield from there to Andrea Wulf's Brother Gardeners to a biography of Wordsworth to a biography of Abigail Adams (like I said -- random). I picked this up several months ago and have been reading it in small chunks on a weekly basis. It is full of literary gossip from the period and replete with opinionated proclamations delivered with supreme and delightful confidence. The Live of Savage is (truly) hard to believe but very entertaining and Johnson's readiness to tear famous writers down to size based on his perception of them was also very engaging. I am looking forward to reading Johnson's essays next but am also thinking about going back to some of the editions of Boswell's journals that I haven't yet read. Fanny Burney is also calling out to me...
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