All the Sweets of Being: A Life of James Boswell [Hardcover]

Roger Hutchinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996

A biography of James Boswell. As well as describing his life in Scotland and London, and his friendship with Samuel Johnson, this book looks at his personal battle between the choice of family and a respectable career on the one hand, and wayward genius and easy debauchery on the other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this sympathetic portrait of the Scots author, Hutchinson sets out to rescue Boswell (1740-1795) from his reputation as a drunken womanizer who chased cravenly after Samuel Johnson in order to write the literary giant's biography (The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791). Hutchinson, an English writer (Crimes of War: The Antanas Gecas Affair), argues that the friendship between the two was mutual and that Johnson cultivated Boswell, 30 years his junior, and eagerly toured the Hebrides with him. In his 20s, Boswell fled the narrow Edinburgh world of his birth for the stimulating environment of London. He met with Voltaire and Rousseau, among other notables, and traveled to Corsica, later writing about the Corsican fight for independence (Account of Corsica, 1768). After numerous love affairs, he married in 1769 and fathered many children. Despite the inclusion of a wealth of interesting historical detail, Hutchinson's rambling account does not ultimately do his subject justice. Photos.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing; First edition (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1851587020
• ISBN-13: 978-1851587025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,669,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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