Collects a large sampling of Samuel Johnson's creativity, including journalism, dictionary of the English language, literary criticism, biographies of poets, letters, and other writings.
Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Readers should find much pleasure and insight in this collection.
--Anthony Pucci (Library Journal 20091008)
We see in [Johnson's] essays the tiny brushwork of brilliant self-portraiture; we hear the rhythm of moral seriousness, the sound of contemplation as it engages with the questions of how to live and how to manage in the face of death. But most of all we feel the reach of an author--a writer attempting to reach past self-doubt, poverty, cant, and orthodoxy, in order to assert the power of individual authorship and free thinking in the face of more nebulous authorities. Samuel Johnson may have failed often enough to be personable, but he nevertheless freed subjectivity...and brought both dignity and self-sufficiency to the writing game, allowing authors to be who they chose to be, unshackled from patronage and the requirement to please great men. We see it in his essays and we see it again in his Lives of the Poets: a writer's writer, beckoning individual creative power out of the mire of dependency, making the work answerable only to high standards of excellence stringently applied.
--Andrew O'Hagan (New York Review of Books 20100201)
This handsome book, with its fine printing and striking cover, commemorates the 2009 tercentennial of Johnson's birth by introducing uninitiated readers to the most accessible of his writing, Martin satisfies this aim well, producing a title that serves as a companion to his Samuel Johnson: A Biography.
--C. S. Vilmar (Choice 20100614)
Peter Martin, who joined the crowded ranks of Johnson's biographers last year, has given us a fair representation of [his] works here...Harvard Press deserves lavish praise for producing a handsome, well-made edition.
--Barton Swaim (Weekly Standard ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--Anthony Pucci (Library Journal 20091008)
We see in [Johnson's] essays the tiny brushwork of brilliant self-portraiture; we hear the rhythm of moral seriousness, the sound of contemplation as it engages with the questions of how to live and how to manage in the face of death. But most of all we feel the reach of an author--a writer attempting to reach past self-doubt, poverty, cant, and orthodoxy, in order to assert the power of individual authorship and free thinking in the face of more nebulous authorities. Samuel Johnson may have failed often enough to be personable, but he nevertheless freed subjectivity...and brought both dignity and self-sufficiency to the writing game, allowing authors to be who they chose to be, unshackled from patronage and the requirement to please great men. We see it in his essays and we see it again in his Lives of the Poets: a writer's writer, beckoning individual creative power out of the mire of dependency, making the work answerable only to high standards of excellence stringently applied.
--Andrew O'Hagan (New York Review of Books 20100201)
This handsome book, with its fine printing and striking cover, commemorates the 2009 tercentennial of Johnson's birth by introducing uninitiated readers to the most accessible of his writing, Martin satisfies this aim well, producing a title that serves as a companion to his Samuel Johnson: A Biography.
--C. S. Vilmar (Choice 20100614)
Peter Martin, who joined the crowded ranks of Johnson's biographers last year, has given us a fair representation of [his] works here...Harvard Press deserves lavish praise for producing a handsome, well-made edition.
--Barton Swaim (Weekly Standard ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Peter Martin has taught English literature on both sides of the Atlantic and is the author of A Life of James Boswell.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Oxford Anthology is decidedly better.,
By
This review is from: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Well, if I've only given this four stars, and not five, it's not due to any failure of Samuel Johnson's. Everything in this book is fine. But the anthology published by Oxford (edited by Donald Greene) is decidedly better. The Oxford Anthology has twice as many of his essays, the Preface to Shakespeare is -complete-, not "From...", and the complete preface to the Dictionary; it also has his short fiction Rasselas (complete), as well as a sermon or two and some early examples of his biographies; the Vision of Theodore, Hermit of Tenerife. Honestly, I can't complain about ANY anthology of Johnson; and this will do you very well. But the Oxford Anthology will do you so much better.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In His Own Words,
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This review is from: Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings (Hardcover)
A must purchase for fans of Samuel Johnson. The informed editor, Peter Martin, judiciously has selected portions from Dr. Johnson's wide written legacy and made them available in a convenient form for the modern reader. Mr. Martin allows his hero, Dr. Johnson, to speak for himself without cluttering this book with his own commentary and asides.
(I do highly recommend Peter Martin's 2008 biography of Samuel Johnson, in which the editor of this book does give his commentary on the powerful life of the English man of letters.) I have read many books about Dr. Johnson: this one provided me with the handy opportunity to consider selections from his own writings that I had previously been aware of only indirectly, such as "Lives of the Poets" and "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia."
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
ALAS, dear friend, the fleeting years Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
great propriety, thy holy spirit Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lord Tyrconnel, Sir Allan, Sir Richard, Paradise Lost, Jesus Christ, Lough Ness, Second Sight, The Wanderer, Richard Savage, Sir Robert Walpole, Fort Augustus, Isle of Sky, Sir William, Volunteer Laureat, Western Islands of Scotland, Lady Mason, Lord Oxford, Sir Thomas Overbury, The Rape of the Lock, Lady Macbeth, Laird of Col, The Bastard, The Gentleman's Magazine, Windsor Forest New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
ALAS, dear friend, the fleeting years Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
great propriety, thy holy spirit Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lord Tyrconnel, Sir Allan, Sir Richard, Paradise Lost, Jesus Christ, Lough Ness, Second Sight, The Wanderer, Richard Savage, Sir Robert Walpole, Fort Augustus, Isle of Sky, Sir William, Volunteer Laureat, Western Islands of Scotland, Lady Mason, Lord Oxford, Sir Thomas Overbury, The Rape of the Lock, Lady Macbeth, Laird of Col, The Bastard, The Gentleman's Magazine, Windsor Forest New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 98
books:
See all 98 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics) by John Milton on 15 pages
- Lives of the Poets by Samuel Johnson on 11 pages
- Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of Juvenal, Imitated by Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson on 10 pages
- An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope on 5 pages
- Moral Essays by Alexander Pope on 4 pages
See all 98 books this book cites
- John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-Trained Historian of the African Diaspora by Ralph Crowder in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans by Joyce Appleby in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Nowhere in America: The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Other Comic Utopias (Folklore and Society) by Hal Rammel on page 55, and Back Matter
- Living Philosophy by Christopher Hamilton on page 111, and Back Matter
- Where the People Are: Language and Community in the Poetry of W. S. Graham (Salt Studies in Contemporary Poetry S.) by Matthew Francis in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books citing this book
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