Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. III

Volume III of Boswell's monumental biography chronicles Samuel Johnson's final years: his increasingly fragile health, his deepening religious reflections, and the brilliant conversations that made him the most celebrated conversationalist in England. Here we encounter Johnson in his seventies, the great lexicographer and essayist now contending with illness and the proximity of death, yet still dispensing wisdom with characteristic wit and rigor. Boswell captures the fullness of a life lived in letters, from Johnson's intimate circle of friends to his daily routines in London, from his struggles with depression to his absolute refusal to succumb to despair. This volume contains some of the most memorable passages in all of biography: Johnson's piercing observations on human nature, his tender friendships, and his eventual death in 1784. Boswell invented modern biography with this work, and this volume demonstrates why. He shows us not a monument but a man, brilliant and contradictory, fearful and courageous, forever in pursuit of meaning.