Life of Johnson, Volume 2: 1765-1776

The greatest biography in the English language continues, and what emerges in these pages is not merely a portrait of Samuel Johnson but a sustained excavation of genius in its daily, fumbling, brilliant humanity. Boswell catches Johnson at the height of his powers: compiling his monumental Shakespeare edition, holding court in London taverns, dispensing wisdom that ranges from the sublime to the absurd. Here is Johnson on happiness, on mortality, on the terrible weight of existence and the small consolations of tea and conversation. Here too is Boswell himself, younger, more anxious, basking in the reflected glow of his idol while quietly becoming his equal. The friendship between these two men, documented with an intimacy that feels almost modern, forms the book's secret heart. What makes this volume endure is its refusal to elevate Johnson into a monument. We see him grumpy, sick, uncertain, generous, vain, and utterly alive. For anyone who wants to understand what it means to be a thinking, suffering, conversing human being in the world, Boswell's Johnson remains the irreplaceable companion.