Life of Johnson, Volume 1: 1709-1765
1793
James Boswell's monumental biography transformed biographical writing forever. Rather than merely cataloguing Samuel Johnson's achievements, Boswell captured the living texture of a complex man: his formidable intellect, his tortured hypochondria, his devastating wit, and his profound moral seriousness. The result is a portrait so vivid that Johnson himself becomes impossible to forget. Boswell documents Johnson's struggle from impoverished Grub Street hack to the most celebrated literary figure in England, tracing his friendships with figures like Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Garrick, his monumental Dictionary, and his battles with depression and physical suffering. But what elevates this work beyond mere chronicle is Boswell's willingness to include Johnson's unguarded moments, his jokes, his silences, his contradictions. This is biography as portraiture, and it remains the standard by which all English-language life writing is judged.
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“Almighty GOD, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be thy will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain, to thy glory and my own salvation, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake. Amen[””
— James Boswell
“He that shall resolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will soon make himself superiour to the seasons; and may set at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south[””
— James Boswell
“Surely, nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence.””
— James Boswell
“The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for saying something, when there's nothing to be said.””
— James Boswell
“The great business of his life (he said) was to escape from himself; this disposition he considered as the disease of his mind, which nothing cured but company.””
— James Boswell
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Boswell, James. Life of Johnson, Volume 1: 1709-1765. Lex, lex-books.com/book/life-of-johnson-volume-1-1709-1765-ba421620-4f2e-4b40-a5e0-ce6608df0479.Boswell, J. (1793). Life of Johnson, Volume 1: 1709-1765. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johnson-volume-1-1709-1765-ba421620-4f2e-4b40-a5e0-ce6608df0479Boswell, James. Life of Johnson, Volume 1: 1709-1765. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/life-of-johnson-volume-1-1709-1765-ba421620-4f2e-4b40-a5e0-ce6608df0479.
