The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - keithhamblen - LibraryThing12/22/20 I own the complete set (vol 1-54) and keep them at home on the top west shelf of my office; this includes The Great Conversation (which is volume 1) and The Great Ideas (volumes 2-3, the ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - donbuch1 - LibraryThingThis classic series represents the Western canon not without academic controversy. The latest volumes of the Great Books include some women writers, but they are still definitely underrepresented ... Read full review
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acknowl acquaintance admiration afterwards answer appears attention believe Boswell called character common consider conversation dear death desire Dictionary doubt edition effect English Essay evid excellent expect expressed favour formed Garrick gave Gentleman's give given hand happy heard honour hope human instance John Johnson kind king knowledge known lady language late learned letter literary lived London lord Magazine manner March master means mentioned merit mind nature never obliged observed occasion once opinion original Oxford particular perhaps period person pleased pleasure poem Preface present probably publick published Rambler reason received remarkable remember respect seemed servant soon spirit suppose sure talk thing thought tion told translation truth whole wish write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 199 - The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.
Page 362 - Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well ; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
Page 167 - Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison...
Page 228 - A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.
Page 198 - I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door ; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance,* one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before. " The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.
Page 198 - World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
Page 46 - Of Gilbert Walmsley, thus presented to my mind, let me indulge myself in the remembrance. I knew him very early ; he was one of the first friends that literature procured me, and I hope, that at least, my gratitude made me worthy of his notice. " He was of an advanced age, and I was only not a boy, yet he never received my notions with contempt. He was a whig, with all the virulence and malevolence of his party ; yet difference of opinion did not keep us apart. I honoured him and he endured me.
Page 147 - Somebody talked of happy moments for composition, and how a man can write at one time and not at another. "Nay," said Dr Johnson, "a man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.
Page 307 - But however that might be, this speech was somewhat unlucky, for with that quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the expression "come from Scotland...
Page xv - Marmor Norfolciense ; or, an Essay on an Ancient Prophetical Inscription, in Monkish Rhyme, lately discovered near Lynne, in Norfolk, by Probus Britannicus...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Oxford English classics Volume 1 of The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, James Boswell |
| Author | James Boswell |
| Publisher | Talboys & Wheeler, 1826 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 14 May 2008 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |