Samuel Johnson by Peter Martin
Poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, critic, conversationalist and wit, Dr Johnson is one of the great figures of English literature, perhaps the most quoted English writer after Shakespeare. Our view of Johnson has been overwhelmingly shaped by James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, published in 1791, the most famous biography in the English language. But invaluable as Boswell is as a source, he should not be the last word. This new biography illuminates the Johnson that Boswell never knew: the awkward youth, the unsuccessful schoolmaster, the eccentric marriage, his early years in London in the 1740s scratching a living, the epic struggle to produce the Dictionary. Very much the outsider, rather than the supremely confident dispenser of robust common sense. Using material unknown to previous biographers, Peter Martin describes the psychological knife-edge on which Johnson felt he lived, caused by his severe melancholia and his physical diseases. He explores Johnson's role in the publishing and printing world of the time and he reveals how important women were to Johnson throughout his life. The Samuel Johnson that emerges from this enthralling biography is still the foremost figure of his age but a more rebellious, unpredictable and sympathetic figure than the one that Boswell so memorably portrayed.
well-researched, fully annotated and judiciously expressed..Peter Martin's volume is a worthy addition to everyone's shelf of Johnsoniana THE LITERARY REVIEW Martin tells the familiar story extremely well. It would be nice if his Samuel Johnson won the 2009 Samuel Johnson. I think it has a chance. OBSERVER a solidly constructed literary biography that makes judicious use of sources sidelined by Boswell, as well as later academic findings. GUARDIAN a readable introduction to the great man's life. He was a great critic, a great wit, a great writer; above all, as this book reminds us, he was a great Englishman. DAILY TELEGRAPH Thorough, sympathetic, and balanced...the great flawed jewel here is really Johnson...lighting the way with wit, immense intellectual charisma, and pure courage. INTELLIGENT LIFE It makes an absorbing study of great flaws in a great human being. As always with Johnson - how you wish you could have known him! DAILY MAIL Peter Martin has written a very smart and well-researched book. SPECTATOR This is the most accessible and entertaining of all the Johnson biographies that I have read since John Wain's 1975 Samuel Johnson: A Biography. Martin is a skillful writer and a practiced biographer. Martin's prose style - lucid, lovely and fluid - combines with the book's shapely narrative structure to package Johnson in a way that is engaging, informative, and entertaining. -- Anthony W.Lee ECCB
Peter Martin was born in Argentina of English parents and educated there and in America. He has taught English literature in both England and America and written extensively on 18th-century British and American literature and culture. He divides his time between southern Spain and West Sussex.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780297607199 |
| ISBN 10 | 0297607197 |
| Title | Samuel Johnson |
| Author | Peter Martin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Orion Publishing Co |
| Year published | 2008-07-31 |
| Number of pages | 544 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |