Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fine new condensed version…it still rewards browsing far more than any other dictionary on the market.”—David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

“If a dictionary can be said to have a personality, this one does…the great pleasure of such a book, [is] the way it returns language to us, expanding our ideas of what, exactly, English is…Lynch makes this monumental work manageable.”—David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

“An immensely useful tool for any Johnsonian, whether scholar or general reader, and performed with Lynch’s well-known learning and precision.”—Paul Fussell, author of Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing and The Great War and Modern Memory

“Through the years I was working on John Adams, I kept an original edition of Johnson’s Dictionary at hand, as I became increasingly aware that the meanings of words in his time were often very different than in our day. I think this new edition has done all present-day lovers of the English language and of the incomparable Dr. Johnson a great service.”—David McCullough

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

Two volumes thick and 2,300 pages long, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, published in 1755, marked a milestone in a language that, as Jonathan Swift and other writers had long lamented, was in desperate need of standards. The work of a great reader and writer, and an earnest compiler, it was the first English dictionary to devote so much space to everyday words; to be so resoundingly thorough in its definitions; and to illustrate usage by quoting from Shakespeare and other great writers.

For the next 150 years, the Dictionary would define the language until the arrival of the Oxford English Dictionary. Johnson's was the dictionary for Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Wordsworth and Coleridge, the Brontes and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. Modern dictionaries owe much to Johnson's work.

This new edition, created by Levenger Press, contains more than 3,100 selections faithfully adapted from the original. Etymology, definitions, and illustrative passages appear in their entirety and are preserved in their original spelling. Bristling with quotations, the Dictionary offers a treasury of memorable passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics. It also features three helpful new indexes created out of entries in this edition: Words found in Shakespeare's works; words from other great literary works; and piquant terms used in eighteenth-century discussions of such topics as law, medicine, and the sexes. Finally, Johnson's "The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language," which he wrote eight years before the Dictionary and which is seldom seen in print, is reproduced in its entirety.

To create his Dictionary, Johnson worked with the help of only six scribes and without benefit of a committee. Learned, curmudgeonly, passionate, and disciplined, he infused his work with a distinctive mix of scholarship, authority, and wit. For those who appreciate literature and love language, it is a browser's delight: An encyclopedia of the age and a dictionary for the ages.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802714218
• ISBN-13: 978-0802714213
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #796,649 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An all-star book available again for browsing, September 29, 2003

By	Frank Lynch "frank_lynch" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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In the 18th century, dictionaries weren't just consulted, they were browsed. That was largely thanks to Samuel Johnson's mammoth 1755 achievement, wherein he defined not just the difficult words, but also common words found in everyday speech; to their definitions, he added illustrative quotations from the finest works -- creating a volume that was a pleasure to read, an education, and one which provoked the reader down long paths. If you have the AMS reprint of Johnson's Dictionary (reprinted in the 1970's) you know it's a heavy volume, and not easy to sit in your lap. But Jack Lynch has extracted over 3,000 of the entries into a volume you can not only hold in your lap, but enjoy reading: the print is not tiny, so it's no strain. And it's a pleasure to read.

Jack Lynch has also provided an informative, breezy introduction, which puts Johnson's Dictionary in the context or prior efforts and those that followed, describes Johnson's task and process, and tells you the impact that Johnson had. A wonderful addition is in the back, wherein there are some great footnotes (such as, Johnson's definition of war was part of a US Supreme Court decision regarding the US decision to bomb Kosovo) and a reverse index of the types of words to be found... Jack Lynch ALSO provides a special Shakespearean index -- so you can look up which words Johnson supported with quotations from The Bard.

I already had the 1970s reprint, as well as the Cambridge CD-ROM, and wasn't sure I needed this. But I'm glad I bought it, it's wonderful to have, even for me.<P...

(By the way, I am not related to Jack Lynch, so it's not like I'm a family member trying to boost his sales.)

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a Masterpiece, Just Wish This Ed Had More "Selections", November 14, 2003

By	Brian Sawyer (Westford, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though at heart I'm strictly an OED man, and at work I tend to use the more practical Merriam-Webster's, I've always had a special place in my heart for Samuel Johnson's masterpiece, and I've cherished my facsimile copy (never had the $10,000 an original copy would set me back).

I'm a huge fan of the quirky charm and literary excellence that went into this unabashedly biased dictionary, so I giddily anticipated this new edition. After flipping through it at the bookstore, however, I was a little disappointed that it didn't offer much over my old facsimile copy. Though the new edition does include Johnson's original "Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language," I have that printed in another volume, and the reduction of the book to "selections" really cuts the book too short to warrant my buying it again.

That said, the entries that made the cut are still fabulous. You have to love a lexicographer ("a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge") who had the courage, interest, and patience to write an entire dictionary by himself but also had the modesty to admit that any mistakes were due to "ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of logomachious fun, great for classes!, June 25, 2005

By	J. Davenport "author of *Will as Commmitment ... (Maplewood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is by far the best selection of entries from Johnson's famous Dictionary available in print today. The difficult choice from among Johnson's many thousands of entries is well done, focusing on words we no longer use, or whose meaning has changed: this provides a window onto changes in English language and the character of 18th century thought, often with political and philosophical significance. Many of the entries are also intrinsically fascinating and/or humorous, making the book lots of fun. The book's introduction is first-rate, laying out the history and significance of this great lexicographic event in the history of our language. This combination makes the book useful for college courses. The author is a leading Johnson scholar and keeper of the primary website on 18th century English literature. He is also the author of a book on Johnson's insults, which I've found can come in very handy at department meetings.