Customer Reviews

James Boswell's Life of Johnson: An Edition of the Original Manuscript, Volume 1: 1709-1765 (Yale Editions of the Private Papers Jame)

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Professor Waingrow's volume (1 of a projected 4) of the Original Manuscript of James Boswell's Life of Johnson is an invaluable work of scholarship which should stimulate Boswellian and Johnsonian studies for generations to come.

The reader is able to trace, though Waingrow's thorough and careful annotations, changes made to the text by Boswell throughout all stages of composition. Much is explained through detailed footnotes and there is a full introduction which explains Prof. Waingrow's own method of annotation and includes some speculation concerning the interest of the manuscript edition for scholars.

The work is designed as a companion to the Hill-Powell edition of the Life of Johnson; each page is provided with the corresponding number in their edition.

It thus holds much for those interested in the study of Boswell's methodology, but all Johnsonian scholars and those interested in the tradition of biographical writing will benefit from this work.

James Boswell wrote what is considered by many to be the greatest biography ever written. He does do an excellent job of describing to the reader what kind of person Samuel Johnson was, as he makes an artfully vivid portrait of his subject. However, it is unfortunately better art than history. It is factually inaccurate, painfully repetitive, and leaves the reader with little understanding of why Samuel Johnson was an important man at all.