Samuel Johnson: His Friends And Enemies

by Peter Quennell

Into this survey of Johnson's private life, Peter Quennell introduces a brilliant array of his contemporaries, the people he supported or denounced with equal eloquence and vigor--his eminent friends: Reynolds, Garrick, Goldsmith and Burke; his eminent adversaries: Gibbon, Sterne and Hume; and a number of intelligent and gifted women in whose company Johnson took particular pleasure. The man who emerges in these pages is a passionate and imposing figure--a man whose "genius for life" overshadowed an entire age. Illustrated throughout. 272 pages. cloth, dust jacket. 8vo..

Genres: Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable look at Samuel Johnson through the eyes of his friends and contemporaries and his interactions with them. Read for context and explantion while reading Boswell's biography of Johnson (which I subsequently have set aside for many moons). May need to drag this out again when I finally get back to Boswell.