- Paperback: 672 pages
- Publisher: Counterpoint Press (Jun 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1887178767
- ISBN-13: 978-1887178761
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 4.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,741,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps the Quickest 600 Pages You'll Ever Read,
By Rotpeter "Rotpeter" (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Samuel Johnson (Paperback)
This biography has everything: meticulous scholarship, incisive literary criticism, and a prose style that recalls the days when professors could actually write a beautiful sentence. The weaknesses are very few. At times Bate's analysis can "sprawl," as he once put it, especially when he tries to apply Freud while discussing Johnson's "self-demand" (an intriguing concept that never really explains Johnson's indolence satisfactorily). Also, Bate tends to defend the Thrales even when they come off poorly, which is surprisingly often. Finally, a bit more on Johnson's relationship with Edmund Burke would have been welcome, for these two geniuses were all too aware of each other's greatness. But these are only minor quibbles. Altogether an inspiring achievement, and a testament to the heights that only the humanities reach.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most moving and inspiring biography I have ever read.,
By Stephen Ostrach (Lexington, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Samuel Johnson (Paperback)
I read this book over 20 years ago. It was my introduction to Samuel Johnson. The book inspired my deep devotion to Johnsonia. The subject, I now know, is fascinating; for over two centuries biographies of Johnson have never been out of print. But this book caught my attention and fixed it. It is a moving portrait of a person like all of us except with greater disabilities and greater strength and, after years of struggle, greater triumphs. I urge anyone with an interest in English literature or 18th century England or in the heights to which a honest and brave man can reach to make the effort to read this book. It is, at the very least, a good read. It may also make ytou a better person.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superbly Written, Researched Book from a Master Biographer,
By loce_the_wizard "loce_the_wizard" (Lilburn, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Samuel Johnson (Paperback)
The very idea of writing a definitive biography of a figure as towering as Samuel Johnson seems unthinkable, yet the late Walter Jackson Bate succeeds in capturing the essence of Johnson's life in spectacular fashion. Some may quibble at Bate's occasional forays into speculation, particularly when he writes about Johnson's troubled childhood and how its events shaped his later life. Because Bate imposes such detail and rigor in his scholarship, however, it would be foolhardy not to think his depictions, even the speculative ones, as pretty accurate. The physiological analysis of Johnson's character may strike some readers as heavy-handed, yet it ultimately illuminates the full character of Johnson, helping the modern reader to understand more clearly the time and culture that produced a character as complex and powerful as Dr. Johnson. As I neared the end of this wonderful volume, I felt the same pangs one feels toward the conclusion of an excellent novel. Bate writes with such power, clarity, and insight that I cannot foresee any other biography of Johnson dislodging this one as the definitive rendering of his epic life.
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