The Cambridge Companion to Samuel JohnsonGreg Clingham Cambridge University Press, 1997 M10 16 - 266 pages The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson, first published in 1997, provides an introduction to the works and intellectual life of one of the most challenging and wide-ranging writers in English literary history. Compiler of the first great English dictionary, editor of Shakespeare, biographer and critic of the English poets, author both of the influential journal Rambler and the popular fiction Rasselas, and one of the most engaging conversationalists in literary culture, Johnson is here illuminatingly discussed from a different point of view. Essays on his main works are complemented by thematic discussion of his views on the experience of women in the eighteenth century, politics, imperialism, religion, and travel as well as by chapters covering his life, conversation, letters, and critical reception. Useful reference features include a chronology and guide to further reading. The keynote to the volume is the seamlessness of Johnson's life and writing, and the extraordinary humane intelligence he brought to all his activities. Accessibly written by a distinguished group of international scholars, this volume supplies a stimulating range of approaches, making Johnson newly relevant for our time. |
Contents
VI | 4 |
VII | 18 |
VIII | 34 |
IX | 51 |
X | 67 |
XI | 85 |
XII | 102 |
XIII | 114 |
XV | 143 |
XVI | 161 |
XVII | 192 |
XVIII | 209 |
XIX | 224 |
XX | 240 |
XXI | 254 |
XIV | 127 |
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Addison Arminianism audience biography Boswell Boswell's Cambridge Companion century character Charlotte Lennox Christian Clarendon Press common conversation Cowley culture death Diaries drama Dryden edition eighteenth eighteenth-century English essays example experience female fiction Frances Burney genius happiness Harleian library Hester Lynch Piozzi Hester Thrale Human Wishes idea Idler imagination Imlac intellectual J. C. D. Clark Jacobite James James Boswell John Johnson's criticism Johnson's Dictionary Johnson's writing Johnsonian Journey knowledge language learning letters literary literature Lives London metaphysical poets Milton mind modern moral nature Nekayah Oxford Paradise Lost passage Pekuah plays pleasure poem poet poetic poetry political Pope Pope's praise Preface prose quotations Rambler Rasselas reader religion religious Roman Samuel Johnson seems sense Sermons Shakespeare style things thought tion tragedy truth uniformitarian University Press Vanity of Human virtue Whig William Hogarth women words wrote