0
  • Essay
  • Poem
  • Play
  • Novel
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Archives

  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019

Categories

  • Author
  • Essay
  • Literary concepts
  • Literary criticism
  • Literary devices
  • literary group
  • Literary movement
  • Literary Terms
  • MCQ English Literature
  • Novel
  • Play
  • Poem
  • Short story

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
author@literaryocean.com
Literary Ocean Literary Ocean
Literary Ocean Literary Ocean
Literary Ocean Literary Ocean
  • Essay
  • Poem
  • Play
  • Novel
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Literary Ocean Literary Ocean
  • Essay
  • Poem
  • Play
  • Novel
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Literary Ocean > Author > A Note on James Boswell and his work “The Life of Samuel Johnson”
AuthorEssay

A Note on James Boswell and his work “The Life of Samuel Johnson”

Supriya Maity
Posted by Supriya Maity July 7, 2020

James Boswell(1740-95) was a lawyer, diarist, and biographer, the eldest son of Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck (pron. Affleck), a Scottish judge who took his title from the family estate in Ayrshire. He reluctantly studied law at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Utrecht universities, despite the literary and political ambitions demonstrated by numerous pamphlets and verses which he published anonymously from 1760 onwards, many of them also expressing his love of the theatre.

He met Samuel Johnson on 16 May 1763 in London.  He was much drawn to him and cultivated his friendship during his occasional visits to London. Subsequently, he made his great venture by writing an original work on his hero -a new literary type-biography. He then went to Holland (where he met and courted Isabelle de Charrière) and on through Europe to Italy. His extraordinary persistence meant he met with Rousseau and Voltaire; Rousseau inspired him with zeal for the cause of Corsican liberty, and he visited Corsica in 1765, establishing a lifelong friendship with General Paoli. On his return to Scotland he ‘passed advocate’ and was to practise there and in England for the rest of his life. His first substantial work, An Account of Corsica (1768), was followed in December of the same year by a book of edited essays ‘in favour of the brave Corsicans’. In this year he married his cousin Margaret Montgomerie.

Boswell started his literary career by writing verses that received little recognition. In 1763 he published a volume of letters –The letters between the Hon. Andrew Erskine and James Boswell, Esq.-, but he achieves celebrity for his Account of Corsica, published in 1768. His literary triumph, however, came from his great biographical work on Johnson – The Life of Samuel Johnson -published in 1791.

Boswell visited London as frequently as possible, spending much time with Johnson, whose biography he already planned. They made their celebrated tour of Scotland and the Hebrides in 1773, in which year Boswell was elected a member of the Club. From 1777 to 1783 he contributed a series of essays, as ‘The Hypochondriack’, to the London Magazine, on such subjects as drinking (a constant preoccupation), diaries, memory, and hypochondria. His last meeting with Johnson was in 1784; his Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides appeared in 1785 after Johnson’s death. The rest of Boswell’s life was devoted to an unsuccessful pursuit of a political career (he was recorder of Carlisle, 1788-90) and to the immense task of assembling materials for his life of Johnson, a labour in which he was encouraged by Edmond Malone.

As a biographer, Boswell proves to be greatly successful. The Life of Samuel Johnson is incontestably the greatest biography in the English language. It is not too much to claim it as the greatest biography in any language.

As a biographer, Boswell displays his original art. The work is elaborately planned and majestically built. Boswell never pushes his own self in the story of his hero. His aim, as a biographer, is to study the man with whom he is concerned from various directions. This is done by him with immense success, and that is why The Life of Samuel Johnson remains a masterpiece in the literary works of the eighteenth century and of the English biographical literature of all times.

 

 

Tags: Account of Corsica by james boswell james boswell books james boswell works The Life of Samuel Johnson by james boswell
Share on
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp Share on Linkedin Share on Telegram Share on Email
Supriya Maity July 7, 2020
Previous Article Bring out clearly the medieval atmosphere in “The Blessed Damozel” by D.G.Rossetti
Next Article Summary and Critical Analysis of ‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Find Us on Facebook

You Might Also Enjoy

Essay

A short note on Anna’s character in the novel ‘Surfacing’ by Margaret Atwood

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity May 26, 2023 2 Min Read
Author

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914); Biography and his famous theory of sign, semiotics

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity May 19, 2023 5 Min Read
Author

Pierre Bourdieu 1930-2002);French cultural anthropologist: Biography and famous works

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity May 13, 2023 5 Min Read
Author

Richard Hoggart (1918-2014); Biography and his famous work ‘The Uses of Literacy’

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity May 9, 2023 2 Min Read
Author

John Langshaw Austin (1911-1960) British philosopher of language

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity April 26, 2023 3 Min Read
Author

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) Jewish-American political philosopher

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity April 23, 2023 2 Min Read
Author

Julia Kristeva(1941-); Biography and famous works

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity April 11, 2023 5 Min Read
Author

Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012); British Historian; Biography and famous works

Posted by Supriya Maity Supriya Maity April 7, 2023 2 Min Read
Load More
Literary Ocean
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

@2022 LiteraryOcean made with Love ❤️

Our website uses cookies to improve your experience. Learn more about: Cookie Policy

Accept