The celebrated Dr. Johnson made a lasting contribution to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer and lexicographer. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works of Samuel Johnson, with numerous illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Johnson's life and works * Concise introductions to the major works * ALL the essays, articles, pamphlets, biographies and critical works * Rare works often missed out of collections * Includes the posthumous collection PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS, appearing here for the first time in digital print * Includes a generous selection of entries for the original 1755 Dictionary, with many definitions for all letters of the alphabet, as well as the original plan and preface * Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry * Easily locate the poems you want to read * Special criticism section, with essays evaluating Johnson’s contribution to literature * Features four biographies – immerse yourself in Johnson's world! * Includes the complete edition of Boswell’s seminal biography, as well as a useful abridged version * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
CONTENTS:
The Essays and Pamphlets A VOYAGE TO ABYSSINIA MARMOR NORFOLCIENSE A COMPLEAT VINDICATION OF THE LICENSERS OF THE STAGE THE PLAN OF A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE RAMBLER THE ADVENTURER THE IDLER THE FALSE ALARM THOUGHTS ON THE LATE TRANSACTIONS RESPECTING FALKLAND’S ISLANDS THE PATRIOT TAXATION NO TYRANNY A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT A CONVERSATION BETWEEN HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY GEORGE III AND SAMUEL JOHNSON LID MISCELLANEOUS PAMPHLETS, REVIEWS AND ESSAYS PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS
The Novella THE PRINCE OF ABISSINIA: A TALE
The Dictionary PREFACE TO A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SELECTED DICTIONARY ENTRIES
The Biographies AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MR RICHARD SAVAGE THE LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH POETS THE LIVES OF EMINENT MEN
The Literary Criticism MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH PROPOSALS FOR PRINTING THE DRAMATICK WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PREFACE TO THE PLAYS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE
The Play IRENE
The Poems LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
The Criticism DR. JOHNSON AND HIS CIRCLE by John Bailey SAMUEL JOHNSON by Richard Claverhouse Jebb SAMUEL JOHNSON by Leslie Stephen STUDIES OF A BIOGRAPHER by Leslie Stephen A POETICAL REVIEW OF THE LITERARY AND MORAL CHARACTER OF JOHNSON by John Courtenay SAMUEL JOHNSON by Nathaniel Hawthorne SAMUEL JOHNSON by C. E. Vaughan ANECDOTES OF THE LATE SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. by Hester Lynch Piozzi THE REAL DR. JOHNSON by G. K. Chesterton A REMINISCENCE OF DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON by H. P. Lovecraft
Beginning as a journalist on Grub street, this English author made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, and editor. People described Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history." James Boswell subjected him to Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the most celebrated biographies in English. This biography alongside other biographies, documented behavior and mannerisms of Johnson in such detail that they informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics confused some persons on their first encounters.
Johnson attended Pembroke college, Oxford for a year before his lack of funds compelled him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage and the poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes." Christian morality permeated works of Johnson, a devout and compassionate man. He, a conservative Anglican, nevertheless respected persons of other denominations that demonstrated a commitment to teachings of Christ.
After nine years of work, people in 1755 published his preeminent Dictionary of the English Language, bringing him popularity and success until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1905, a century and a half later. In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of plays of William Shakespeare, and the well-read novel Rasselas. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, travel narrative of Johnson, described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening; people buried his body in Westminster abbey. In the years following death, people began to recognize a lasting effect of Samuel Johnson on literary criticism even as the only great critic of English literature.
Samuel Johnson is one of my top five favorite authors. His words are a comfort I have returned to hundreds of times. He is my in-between reading. The Rambler, Rasselas, Prefaces, articles, it does not matter where you start reading, just start reading Johnson. His entire corpus is available for free online, uncopyrighted. I have the 14-volume edition on my Kindle as well as this compact ebook. When I first read his poetry and play, I was not won over. But everything he did was an exercise in argument, not necessarily a lyrical accomplishment. Still, his unapproachable and unstoppable rhetoric is fine-tuned as any Cicero or Gorgias. The poetry is not the best place to start But that was only the first volume I tried. I moved on through several more volumes, could not stop reading. Then I gave up when I came to the Dictionary. You can be sure that his Dictionary is one of the more interesting ones you could choose to read, and there is the importance of the fact that it is the first one in the English language to consider, but it is still a dictionary. Since then, I have come back to his Rambler articles, and have dipped into his Idler essays, which I consider divine reading on the level of Shelley and Shakespeare for sheer delight. His wit, wisdom, and uncanny ability to hit the nail on the head, to cut to the heart of the matter, and to move you with his profound intellect are unsurpassed. With Johnson, I experience the same awe as when I read Faulkner, except Johnson does not seem to proceed with a plan. Rather, if you gave him a pen and he started scribbling in a candlelit room, he would still mesmerize you with incidental observations. You have Faulkner and Dickens who have mastered the novel in English. With them, you don't really need to read too many other novels to experience a vast fictional range. Otherwise, Johnson reigns supreme over the miscellaneous realm of nonfiction writing and criticism in my mind. I feel that I will never tire of reading him.
Final required reading for my British Literature class, and I was slightly sad to come to the end. That being said I loved the final reading for the class. I had heard of Samuel Johnson before. If you read any history of London that takes place during his lifetime, he at least gets a mention. So I knew going in about his Dictionary and Preface to Shakespeare, but I had never picked up and read any of his work. For some reason, I had him firmly listed as a boring old guy who's work I would hate, so I always avoided it. I was really wrong, I loved reading "Vanity of Human Wishes" "Rambler no. 4" and "Rambler no. 60". I will definitely be reading more of his writing in the near future.