What do you think?
Lives of the Poets
Please visit www.ArcManor.com for more books by this and other authors.
- GenresNonfiction
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Samuel Johnson
4,920 books435 followersPeople note British writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, known as "Doctor Johnson," for his
Dictionary of the English Language
(1755), for
Lives of the Poets
(1781), and for his series of essays, published under the titles
The Rambler
(1752) and
The Idler
(1758).
Samuel Johnson used the first consistent Universal Etymological English Dictionary , first published in 1721, of British lexicographer Nathan Bailey as a reference.
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 used the first consistent Universal Etymological English Dictionary , first published in 1721, of British lexicographer Nathan Bailey as a reference.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
November 28, 2014
Johnson's lives are part biography, part literary criticism, mixed in varied proportions. The Life of Cowley, for example, is almost all criticism, as Johnson lambasts what he feels is the wilful obscurity of the metaphysical poets, while the Life of Savage is pure biography. The lives of Pope, Swift and Milton are somewhere between the two.
It could be argued that Johnson's lives ultimately tell you as much about Johnson as the poets he profiles. He makes no attempt to conceal his opinions about his subjects' lives as well as their works: instead, a strong vein of moral judgement runs through every page. The portrait he paints of Milton, for example, is of an asocial misanthrope with a faintly ridiculous notion of his own political importance, although Johnson's praise of Paradise Lost is more effusive than anything he lavishes on the other poets. There is also a fascinating depiction of Swift; while Johnson acknowledges his attempts to improve the lot of the Irish poor, which made him a local hero, he represents him as a lonely figure who regarded himself as an exile and who disastrously tried to hold the woman who loved him at arm's length.
The literary criticism is variable in its level of detail, indicating that Johnson was probably relying on his memory rather than re-reading the relevant works before writing. Unfortunately, many of the poets and works evaluated are not much read these days - and some that are, like Gulliver's Travels, receive only cursory attention ('The part which gave least pleasure was that which describes the Flying Island, and that which gave most disgust must be the history of the Houyhnhnms'). However, Johnson's incisive and highly amusing critique of Pope's epitaphs shows that he is perfectly capable of close reading. It is fascinating, in passages like this, to see one poet judging another - not with the theoretical criticism of the professional scholar, but with the experience and sympathy of a fellow practitioner.
Another of the book's treasures is the impression it gives of literary life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It offers insights into matters as diverse as how much authors were paid, the problems of pirate editions, the capricious nature of patronage, and perhaps most entertainingly, the various literary feuds and rivalries that raged throughout this period.
The Life that leaves the biggest impression is that of Savage. While the works of this minor poet have sunk into obscurity, he is immortalised in what is perhaps Johnson's most powerful piece of writing, and certainly his most poignant. There is fuming indignation at the appalling treatment of Savage by his mother, revealing Johnson at his most forceful and aggressive, but there is pathos too which betrays Johnson's personal friendship with the subject - a friendship which is explicitly referred to only once. But Johnson never eulogises Savage, nor does he try to blame Savage's mother for all the evils that befall her son. This is a man who was his own worst enemy; who was possessed of enough charm, wit and intelligence to make friends wherever he went, but who was too hot-headed and irresponsible with money to keep any friend long. Johnson's portrait of Savage is vivid and unflinchingly true to life in a way that transcends the particular circumstances of his existence. We recognise the truth and the justice of it because we have all, at some time in our lives, met Savage.
It could be argued that Johnson's lives ultimately tell you as much about Johnson as the poets he profiles. He makes no attempt to conceal his opinions about his subjects' lives as well as their works: instead, a strong vein of moral judgement runs through every page. The portrait he paints of Milton, for example, is of an asocial misanthrope with a faintly ridiculous notion of his own political importance, although Johnson's praise of Paradise Lost is more effusive than anything he lavishes on the other poets. There is also a fascinating depiction of Swift; while Johnson acknowledges his attempts to improve the lot of the Irish poor, which made him a local hero, he represents him as a lonely figure who regarded himself as an exile and who disastrously tried to hold the woman who loved him at arm's length.
The literary criticism is variable in its level of detail, indicating that Johnson was probably relying on his memory rather than re-reading the relevant works before writing. Unfortunately, many of the poets and works evaluated are not much read these days - and some that are, like Gulliver's Travels, receive only cursory attention ('The part which gave least pleasure was that which describes the Flying Island, and that which gave most disgust must be the history of the Houyhnhnms'). However, Johnson's incisive and highly amusing critique of Pope's epitaphs shows that he is perfectly capable of close reading. It is fascinating, in passages like this, to see one poet judging another - not with the theoretical criticism of the professional scholar, but with the experience and sympathy of a fellow practitioner.
Another of the book's treasures is the impression it gives of literary life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It offers insights into matters as diverse as how much authors were paid, the problems of pirate editions, the capricious nature of patronage, and perhaps most entertainingly, the various literary feuds and rivalries that raged throughout this period.
The Life that leaves the biggest impression is that of Savage. While the works of this minor poet have sunk into obscurity, he is immortalised in what is perhaps Johnson's most powerful piece of writing, and certainly his most poignant. There is fuming indignation at the appalling treatment of Savage by his mother, revealing Johnson at his most forceful and aggressive, but there is pathos too which betrays Johnson's personal friendship with the subject - a friendship which is explicitly referred to only once. But Johnson never eulogises Savage, nor does he try to blame Savage's mother for all the evils that befall her son. This is a man who was his own worst enemy; who was possessed of enough charm, wit and intelligence to make friends wherever he went, but who was too hot-headed and irresponsible with money to keep any friend long. Johnson's portrait of Savage is vivid and unflinchingly true to life in a way that transcends the particular circumstances of his existence. We recognise the truth and the justice of it because we have all, at some time in our lives, met Savage.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review