Samuel Johnson: Selected Poetry and Prose

By Samuel Johnson

Book Overview

This is a major new selection of Samuel Johnson's best work, delightfully introduced by W. K. Wimsatt and scrupulously annotated by Frank Brady and Mr. Wimsatt.

Samuel Johnson, the only writer in English since the Renaissance to give his name to a literary period, was the center of English letters in his time. He was Dictionary Johnson, the lexicographer who had single-handedly settled the English language (it was hoped) on a firm basis; he was the author of a handful of fine poems, including two of the most remarkable satires of the century; he was a moralist whose Rambler and Idler essays, and novel-of-ideas Rasselas, provided a searching view of men and matters. And in his final years he produced his greatest work, that extraordinary combination of biography and criticism which came to be known as the Lives of the Poets.

This first extensive anthology of Johnson's writings to be published in many years emphasizes Johnson the writer. It responds to those aspects of Johnson's work of special interest to modern readers. It comprises a selection of Johnson's letters, all of his major poems (including London), Rasselas, twenty-one Rambler, nineteen Idlers, the Prefaces to the Dictionary and to the edition of Shakespeare, and the following Lives of the Poets: Cowley, Milton, Swift, Pope, Savage, Collins, and Gray.

All these works are extensively annotated and printed complete. Mr. Wimsatt, one of the outstanding Johnsonians of this century, provides in his Introduction a clear, connected biographical account of Johnson, stressing his writings. An up-to-date bibliography is also included. Johnson's varied accomplishments--as poet, as moralist, as biographer, as critic--are all amply represented.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520035526
• ISBN13: 9780520035522
• Release Date: February 1978
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Doctor is In

Samuel Johnson was in his era what E.F. Hutton was in his. When the Doctor spoke, people listened. His sidekick and amanuensis, James Boswell, of course immortalized his utterances in one of the grandest biographies ever written. What this volume (and similar collections) indicates is that Johnson was equally irrepressible in print. Johnson was nothing if not opinionated. Yet, coming from him, they are never merely opinions. There is always a great degree of heft and weight supporting them (no pun intended, as he was an immense man physically as well as intellectually)). Though he received only an honorary degree from Oxford (he was too poor to remain at school), he was one of the most learned men of any era. The range and breadth of his reading is unsurpassed by any other major literary figure, with the possible exception of Milton. Yet Johnson never comes across as overblown, nor does he ever trumpet his learning. His writing is informed be a sense of humility and compassion, that no doubt were among the attributes that endeared him to so many of the leading lights of his generation. And of course, he also had a marvelous sense of humor, which also comes through in this collection. Unfortunately for him, his good moods were often followed by serious bouts of depression, which is reflected in his most famous poem, "The Vanity of Human Wishes." By today's standards, he would be diagnosed most probably as a manic-depressive. There were many days when he found it difficult to summon the resolve to get out of bed and face the day. What saved him was his naturally gregarious nature. He thoroughly enjoyed the company he found in London's taverns. His compassion for others is legendary. He thought that the character of a country was determined by the degree to which it ministered to the poor. He was an ardent foe, as exhibited in one of his "Idler" articles, of so-called scientific experimentation on animals. He viscerally describes the cruel and inhumane use that dogs were subjected to by anatomy researchers in his era. It is one of the most compellingly moving diatribes against this still-controversial subject that one is likely to encounter. One of the marks of great authors is that they say things we sometimes think of ourselves in such an adroit and pithy manner that we think they could not be better expressed. Take this Johnson quote on "idleness," for example: "As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his own duty and real employment, naturally endeavors to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does anything but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favor." Dr. Johnson was also one of the foremost literary critics in history. Though one may not always agree with his assessments, one has to acknowledge the force of his arguments. In his encomiums to such writers as Shakespeare, Milton and Pop