Customer Reviews

Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this magnificent work Mr Sisman describes the making of that greatest of all biographies, Boswell's Life of Dr Johnson. To his contemporaries the task that Boswell had taken on was presumptuous indeed - to record the life of the greatest literary man of his age, while being dismissed himself as a frivolous and reprobate dilettante incapable of any serious activity. Well, the world knows that Bozzy succeeded in confounding his critics, but the tragic irony of his predicament was that he succeeded too well. While hailing the book as a masterpiece, the current and future literary establishment dismissed Boswell's own role as little more than that of a stenographer. Macaulay's damning essay on Boswell formed the opinion held by too many people for far too long. The true story of Boswell's genius became well known to scholars in the 20th century; with this book, Mr Sisman brings the story to a wider audience. It is a remarkable portait of Boswell's love for Johnson and the great struggles he endured to bring his hero to life in the pages of his biography. Battling drink, debauchery, depression and his own self-destructive nature, Boswell managed to pull off the one great sustained piece of effort of his life. In his book Johnson was brought to life once again, an image so convincing that it took over 150 years for people to discern the art behind the apparent ingenuousness of Boswell's technique. Sisman does a good job of showing how the Johnson of the Life was as much a product of Boswell's gift as the historical record (although I think readers would have benefited from a few examples of textual analysis to illustrate this). His final chapter on the gradual unearthing of the Boswell papers provides an exciting ending and his writing is clear and compelling. "Boswell's Presumptuous Task" is nothing short of a triumph.

Before Boswell, biography was like a formal portrait, a flattering way to honor the subject. Today, biography is more likely to be critical than to be positive. All of this has happened in less than 220 years. How was the line originally breached? That's the key element of this rewarding "biography of a biographer doing a biography." In fact, this book's perspective on Boswell's task has itself has now broken new ground. Where will this new view take us 220 years hence?

This book will probably only be a three or four star effort for those who have not yet read (or cannot remember much about) James Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. If you think you are interested in this book's subject, go read or reread the biography first unless it is very clear in your mind. Otherwise, many of the juiciest bits of this book will not connect as well for you.

Before reading the Life of Dr. Johnson, I could not make any sense of why Boswell had written the book. Surely an attorney had something better to do than to follow another man around, taking verbatim notes of his conversations. After seeing the biography, I realized that the relationship was in many ways like that of the fictional Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and novels. Boswell adored Johnson, as did most people. But it still wasn't clear what all his motivations were, aside from adoration. This book is very helpful in that regard. I had never invested the time in reading a biography of Boswell, so many of these details about the time after Johnson died were new to me.

The core of the book deals with the issue of great men having their downsides. I often am shocked by how often it seems that the greater the genius, the worse the person is in his or her private life. It is as though the genius withdraws them from all else, and gives them psychological license to break the rules of ordinary mortals. The Prometheus myth comes to mind as a parallel.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was no exception, although certainly not as weak in many ways as other "great men" have been. In biography terms, what was exceptional was that Boswell recorded and reported much of the flaws he encountered.

What this book reveals that was new to me (and possibly to you) is what Boswell did not include in the biography. Now, that part of this book was even more interesting that what I had read in the biography.

This point was even more striking to me because Boswell seemed to be a classic case of a man who lacked emotional intelligence. He was surprised when he offended people, and that some were stricken to the quick by what he had written. This occurred despite having had these experiences over and over again. But even Boswell had some scruples.

You will probably also be interested to learn about what the Boswell notes and journals have shown about Boswell's writing process. Boswell's notes were not actually stenographic records. They were fragments and general references to jog his memory about what had been said and what had happened. Boswell did not write in the journal every day, and so the journal is more like new writing than summarization. So we should give Boswell more credit for what we like about The Life of Dr. Johnson.

I enjoyed the comparisons to the other biographies and collections of letters that were published at about the same time. Boswell's accomplishment seems all the greater in that context.

Boswell himself is someone who goes down in my esteem from this book as a person, while up as a researcher and as a writer. In a sense, this "biography of a biographer writing a biography" has done to him what he did to Samuel Johnson. That seems apt.

I disagreed with the book's final point. The author says "never again will there be such a combination of subject, author, and opportunity" as coincided to create Boswell's biography of Sanuel Johnson. What do you think?

After you finish this wonderful and interesting book, I suggest that you think about great people you have met. Have you created notes about your contacts with them? Have you written up anything from those notes? Have you published any writing about them? If not, perhaps you should. What will you include . . . and omit?

Presume to share what is important for all humanity to know!

On the positive side, this is a well-written and well-researched book. It's a good, clear account of the writing of Boswell's Life of Johnson. However, it has no new facts or insights, and it doesn't achieve the author's stated aims.

Most of it is merely a summary of Boswell's journals, particularly while he was writing the Life. It's a good summary, with some background information and some clarification of points that may be unfamiliar to the modern reader. However, Sisman usually just repeats Boswell's own descriptions of his thoughts, feelings, and actions, and presents them to the reader (chapter after chapter) with little or no comment.

In the introduction Sisman raises many interesting questions, such as the extent to which Boswell 'invented' Johnson, and the nature of biography and its limits. Unfortunately, he doesn't provide any answers, or even any real discussion.

There are some strange omissions. He rightly states that Boswell polished up and 'improved' Johnson's conversations, a fact which is obvious to anyone who has compared the relevant passages in the Life and in the Journals. But even though this issue is crucial to understanding the writing of the Life, he not only fails to discuss it, but even fails to show a single example of such polishing.

Sisman states in the introduction that "I have attempted to deconstruct the Life of Johnson". However, this 'deconstruction' seems to be limited to remarking that, in the Life, we see Johnson through Boswell's eyes, and that Boswell tended to emphasize things that mattered to him personally. These are truisms that hardly need stating, and he takes these points no further.

I can't help thinking that the introduction contains intentionally misleading hype, intended for lazy reviewers. It's like fancy icing added to a dry cake. People who only read the introduction and then rapidly skim and sample the rest of the book could easily get the impression that it's more profound than it really is. A thorough reading shows that the author makes no real attempt to address the issues that he says he does.

There is some liveliness and interest in Sisman's book, but it is just a little of the light of Boswell's journals filtering through. If you are looking for a summary of Boswell's later life and the contents of his journals at this period, this book may be useful, but overall I would say that although Boswell succeeded in his 'presumptuous task', Sisman didn't succeed in his.

_Life[17~ of Johnson_ by James Boswell has, since its publication in
1791, been one of the world's favorite books. Now Adam Sisman has
biographied that great biography, in _Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The
Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), a
grand book for anyone who loves the original one, or Boswell, or
Johnson. It is also a capital demonstration of the artistry involved
in writing nonfiction.

Boswell had a stern father who had contempt for
his son, and so he searched for father figures. It was this role that
Johnson inevitably played, and while others were disgusted by
Boswell's sycophancy, it mere ensured that Boswell could get his
subject to discourse, and could take it all down in his ever-present
journal. Sisman shows how Boswell used his voluminous journals to put
himself into the scene, even when he was not really there. Anecdotes
from friends and even Johnson's own writings were put into the
biography as if Boswell were really there, and that Boswell edited the
conversations to his liking. A skilled mimic, Boswell could turn
stories about Johnson in a way that made them true to life. Scholars
have counted up the calendars of the two men and found that they met
only on 400 days of the last 22 years of Johnson's life, so Boswell
really did not play the role of constant companion. Even more
interesting is what Boswell left out, Johnson's sexual
activities. Uxoriousness and unrelieved grief of the widower were
truer to Boswell's purpose, if not to Johnson's character. In
addition, painting his friend in this way may have assuaged Boswell's
guilt over his many infidelities to his own wife. Sisman also shows
how untiringly Boswell sought details from others, and confirmed them,
in order to write them up himself.

Boswell had a magnificent and
useful friendship with Johnson, who inspired him and provided him with
the immortality he sought (although, sadly, Boswell could not have
known this). The friendship was a foundation of his life, and forms
the basis of one of the most entertaining of the great books. It
wasn't always a smooth friendship, as Johnson was always
intermittently rough with his friends. His famous remark to Boswell,
"You have but two topics, yourself and me, and I'm sick of
both," shows that he grew impatient at being prodded into
self-revelation. But we only know of that remark because Boswell, all
thanks be to him, recorded it for future use and kept it as one of the
details in his incomparable book.

Whether you are a Johnsonian or a Boswellian this is a book you will love. If there is anything almost as pleasing as reading Boswell's Life of Johnson it is reading about how this masterpiece was written.

Sisman first gives us a summary of Boswell's and Johnson's life together. This chapter can be a little trying for those of us who know the story through and through but is a wonderfully concise grounding for those new to the subject.

Then Sisman tells us how Boswell lived during the almost seven years it took for the publication of his opus magnum to become a reality. The story is often sad. Boswell was in debt and not gainfully employed. He lost his wife and his health. Boswell sometimes despaired but he knew that he was the one man who could write a book befitting its tremendous subject. He knew this absolutely and he was absolutely right.

We all know Macaulay's deadly verdict on Boswell: a fool who wrote a great book by accident. Macaulay and those of his ilk seem to see Boswell as the posited monkey who when given a typewriter and allowed to type at random could eventually turn out the works of Shakespeare.

Not bloodly likely! As Sisman shows us Boswell put his whole heart and soul into writing this book. He spared no effort in making it as perfect and as copious as he could. With Boswell's loyal heart and Edmond Malone's careful eye working together a monument worthy of Samuel Johnson was created.

It is well that we are reminded from time to time of how much we owe to James Boswell. I am only sorry if he cannot hear our plaudits.

This is a work in three parts, first detailing James Boswell's life before and during his long friendship with Samuel Johnson; then describing Boswell's long travails in writing his celebrated biography of Johnson; and then the biography's illustrious career from publication to the present.

What I found most enjoyable about Boswell's Presumptuous Task is the insight it gives to the lives of Dr. Johnson and James Boswell themselves. Johnson first comes off as gruff and forbidding, but as we read on we realize the charm that, along with his celebrated erudition, made him a magnet for his many friends. As for Boswell, was there ever a man so self-destructive yet accomplished? Unwilling to settle down to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer and landowner in Scotland, he tore off to London whenever possible to enjoy the high life. In the capital he tried to shine in high society, but usually wound up on its fringes at best. Although he apparently adored his terminally ill wife, he was unable to resist prostitutes ( I lost count of the number of VD infections he contracted ). He tried to go into Parliament, but failed to grasp that no one would be willing to sponsor him in a seat unless he agreed to give up his independence. (And we think politics today is cynical!)

Despite his naivete, Boswell was accomplished enough to turn out a landmark biography of Samuel Johnson. Its emphasis on its subject's character has influenced every biography since.

Boswell's Presumptuous Task is an enjoyable description both of the process of writing a classic biography and of the growth of the biographer himself.

James Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" is widely hailed as the first great biography (you probably knew that already...) The work is a huge advancement over prior efforts at biography, because Boswell spent considerable time with Johnson and in the biography described, in great detail, conversations between Johnson, Boswell, and others (you probably knew that already, too...) Adam Sisman has distilled the available information on Boswell (drawing on his notes, journals, letters, manuscripts of the life) and the considerable body of literary criticism regarding Boswell & Johnson, to distill a very readable, mostly chronological account of what Boswell went through as he tried to write Johnson's Life. Sisman's focus is on the Boswell-Johnson parts, with little extraneous discussions of other aspects of Boswell. Thus, we get a little bit of Boswell growing up, but only so as to see Boswell's need for a father figure who could love him warmly; we get a brief discussion of Boswell's days with Johnson; we get the popular reactions to Boswell's explicit re-telling of their Highland jaunt, and the furor over the detailed way in which he related conversations; we get the distractions (family, alcohol, law, efforts towards a government post, and prostitutes) which competed for his attentions as he pretended to work on the life. I was very impressed with how Sisman used repetition to drive home themes that might have been lost in his chronological approach to the story, but we come away with not only a good understanding of Boswell's failings, but also how Sisman felt about Boswell. Sisman has done more than just tell the events, he has also provided us with a point of view. For instance, Sisman talks of one period where, he writes that Boswell was inflicted with "yet another" case of venereal disease. Sisman not only points out the poor behavior with this phrase, but drives home that enough is enough. In many other instances, Sisman points out how Boswell just doesn't behave as a sensible person, pursuing one goal while shooting himself in the foot. Repeatedly. Another impressive aspect of what Sisman has accomplished is how he has taken a middle road when it comes to the stuff of literary criticism (how accurate is Boswell? how much is biography vs art?). There is plenty of this to read in other books, but Sisman has been kind to the reader, letting the reader connect the dots. He frequently discusses how Boswell and his editor Malone would work to build the tale out of Boswell's notes - - apparently Malone was very talented in ancient manuscripts and filling in the gaps where necessary; yet Sisman balances this by relating how so few contemporaries complained about the telling of the events. And also on the balance, Sisman discusses how Boswell's art gave a different significance to the events. Let's be clear, I don't like Boswell, never have. Not sure I ever will. But Adam Sisman has given the LOJ a context by providing a book-length treatment of Boswell's life at the time. And Sisman has done it so well, that although I still don't like Boswell, Sisman has made him more real for me, and much less of a cartoon. Bravo, Adam Sisman!

This book should be a must-read for anyone interested in history, biography, politics, or literary endeavors. The writing is smooth as silk, free from academic obfuscation, reading more like a novel than an in-depth analysis of one of the most important events in literary history. To be sure though, the work is not without its blemishes. As a previous reviewer noted, a familiarity with Boswell's biography of Johnson would certainly enhance a reader's enjoyment and understanding, as would a basic grounding in 18th Century British history. Sisman does not interrupt the flow of his narrative to provide even a minimal education on such topics as Culloden, the Young and Old Pretenders, Prince Charles, etc. Also, other than Finden's engraving of Johnson and Boswell that adorn the book's dust jacket, there are no other illustrations in the book. The addition of engravings of such key people as might be available and photos or reproductions of key pages of the various important documents discussed in the book would have been an invaluable and much desired addition. I would also like to have had a bit more explanation of Sisman's basis for some of his interpretations, e.g., in referring to John Wilkes comments upon the publication of Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Sisman says that Wilkes "feigned to see the book as an attack on Johnson" and that Wilkes wrote "facetiously" to Boswell with "affected indignation," yet Sisman offers no justification as to why we should not believe that Wilkes' comments to Boswell were made in complete earnestness. Such blemishes cannot dim the brilliant light of this wonderful book. You simply must read it!

This book tells the story of the greatest biographical masterpiece in the English language. In the course of it we learn to appreciate the skill, dedication, persistence and great art of Boswell. This is Sisman's description of Boswell as he wrote the life :

"The story of Boswell's life as he wrote the epic Life of Johnson is itself an epic: in the process Boswell experienced an extraordinary degree of exhilaration and depression, pride, humiliation, confidence, doubt, satisfaction, hurt, loneliness, disillusionment and grief." A man of great ambition, Boswell had little to show for his efforts at the time of Johnson's death. Writing the biography "was his last hope of achieving anything worthwhile."

But Boswell through his great diligence, his careful noting down of the words of his great friend, his artful reshaping of much of what he heard, his willingness to tell not simply of virtues but of faults, his ability to present the whole man, succeeded in giving the world the picture of the Great Cham which attracts and moves us to this day. Gruff, easily made irritable, but capable of incredible kindness, always fierce and fast in his remarks, tremendously knowledgeable, a loyal friend, the master maker of the Dictionary, Johnson is presented by Boswell as a fully rounded character.
Sisman gives the background to the lives of these two giants of English Literature. He focuses on Boswell's preparation for the work and his ongoing method of execution. He reveals in details the way one great masterpiece of world- literature was made by someone often derided by those of his own time.

Boswell's Presumptious Task (The Making of the Life of Dr. Johson) is an examination of a biographer creating a biography, or, in this case, THE biographer creating THE biography. This book is itself not quite a biography as it concentrates mainly, although not exclusively, on Boswell's life as it pertains to the creation of his book. It is also not a careful examination of the book Boswell wrote itself. Instead, it is a fascinating view of the human interactions, both between subject and author, but also those between the author and his sources before and after Johnson's death, that went into the creating process. The literary masterpiece that came to be the Life of Johnson was born out of the social and cultural mileau both men enjoyed in London and this is well recreated in this book. This is a readable, sometimes funny, sometimes touching book.