Selected Essays (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The difficulty of the first address on any new occasion, is felt by every man in his transactions with the world, and confessed by the..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Gentle

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Product Description

With his wit, eloquence, and shrewd perception of contemporary morals, Samuel Johnson was the most versatile writer of the English neoclassical period. His dictionary, dramas, and poetry established his reputation, but it was the essays that demonstrated the range of his talent. This new edition presents both the forcefully argued moral pieces of Johnson's middle years and the more light-hearted essays of his later work. Tackling ethical questions-such as the importance of self-knowledge, awareness of mortality, the role of the novel, and, in a lighter vein, marriage, sleep, and deceit-these brilliant and thought-provoking essays are a mirror of the time in which they were written and a testament to Johnson's stature as the leading man of letters of his age.

About the Author

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was the leading literary scholar and critic of his time. A writer of vigor, power, passion, and profundity, he helped to shape and define the Augustan Age.

David Womersley teaches at Jesus College, Oxford, and edited Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for Penguin Classics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140436278
• ISBN-13: 978-0140436273
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #191,474 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Share the wisdom of Dr. Samuel Johnson in this Penguin collection of his periodical essays, March 18, 2009

By	C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84) was a prolific author during the Augustan Age of English Literature. He is best known for his English Dictionary of the English Language published in 1755 and his biography written by his Scottish friend James Boswell.
Penguin has taken essays Johnson wrote in the 1750-1760 period which he wrote for periodicals named: The Rambler, The Adventurer and the Idler.
Johnson's style is difficult for a modern reader to peruse. He often quotes the ancients, his sentences are labyrinthal and he can be repetitive in what information or thoughts he is sharing.
Nevertheless, the reader admires and learns from Johnson who was a man of immense learning. He discusses such topics as: Reading, Marriage, Solittude, Virtue, Stagecoach Travel, British soldiery, political affairs, Sleep, Idleness, Vanity, the fears we all have of death and the joy of Christian salvation.
This is a collection that will require time and effort but it does yield its rewards of wisdom and sage advice from a giant of English literature.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No blockhead 'he'. Was the 'talker' superior to the 'writer'?, November 2, 2005

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The great range of his interests, the complex classical balance of his sentences, the passion and forcefulness in which he justifies his tastes, the sense of authority and integrity which radiate from the page- all these are elements which make Johnson's essays of great possible interest to those who can endure the difficulty of understanding such complexity, and the discomfort of being in the presence of so forceful a personality. He wrote these essays for the 'Spectator', the 'Rambler' and he was apparently paid well- enough for them to avoid being considered a blockhead.
Yet how strange and paradoxical that it is not for these 'Essays'( in which he too discusses the subject of Literary Fame) but for the portrait of him made by another writer( Boswell in the 'Life) that he most lives in our minds and hearts.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chesterton, G. K., Selected Essays, Orthodoxy, and the Everlasting Man., November 29, 2008

By	Donald G. Price - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On Selected Essays, what a vocabulary! What lengthy sentences! Very dated in written form but very up to date in observations. My written notes were not long, but the book is long!
The Everlasting Man and Orthodoxy were most interesting for an understanding of classic Christianity and the notes that I took are most appropriate as to the impact of modern thinking on Classic Christianity is concerned. Chesterton is right on target and extremely knowledgeable, having read practically everything up to his time. A good threesome, well balanced.