Samuel Johnson and the Life of Writing

by Paul Fussell

“Fresh, alert, commanding and likely to be a landmark in 18th century studies. . . .Readers who care about English literature will relish this lucid, often controversial re-examination.” ―Book-of-the-Month-Club News Not everyone is as innocent as this engaging complainant. Most people who read know something about Johnson, enough at least to summon up images of him asseverating “No, Sir,” knocking back endless cups of tea, rambling over the Hebrides, puffing out his breath like a whale, repressing Boswell, standing bareheaded in Uttoxeter Market, and having a frisk with Beauclerk and Langton. And now, thanks to the Johnsonians of Yale, Columbia, Oxford, and Lichfield, our knowledge of the man and his social environment has increased more than anyone fifty years ago could have imagined. But despite prodigies of research and documentation, an interest in Johnson that could be called literary has been wanting. One suspects that for every hundred persons familiar with the classic Johnson anecdotes there is perhaps only one who has actually read the Rambler or the Idler or even the Lives of the Poets . And if the writings are still little read for their own sake, they are almost as little written about as attractive objects of criticism. Yale’s new edition of the writings, the first since the early nineteenth century, is an occasion to perceive that for all his value as conversational goad and wit and for all his attractiveness as a moral and religious hero, Johnson’s identity remains stubbornly that of a writer.

Genres: Literature, Criticism, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Paul Fussell was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings covered a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America’s class system. He was an U.S. Army Infantry officer in the European theater during World War II (103rd U.S. Infantry Division) and was awarded both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He is best known for his writings about World War I and II.

He began his teaching career at Connecticut College (1951–55) before moving to Rutgers University in 1955 and finally the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He also taught at the University of Heidelberg (1957–58) and King’s College London (1990–92). As a teacher, he traveled widely with his family throughout Europe during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, taking Fulbright and sabbatical years in Germany, England and France.

Reviews

[Mattschratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea that Paul Fussell wrote a book about Samuel Johnson. I liked The Great War and Modern Memory, part of which I remember reading at one of those giant malls in New Jersey in 2008 or 2009. Anyway, I saw this book at the basement of the Brookline Booksmith and bought it a few years ago. I love Samuel Johnson--he was the area of study of one of my college mentors. A few months ago, that mentor died, so I decided to read this book. It was a great comfort to me. Fussell's argument is that Johnson is not the imperious opinion-giver that Boswell presents him as, but instead someone who understood thinking as an exercise in genre ahead of anything else--and that he had a wide-ranging and idiosyncratic (especially to us) group of genres he cared about: letters, periodicals, biographical essays, quips, dictionary entries. Boswell's version of the Great Cham makes him kind of lonely: sitting in isolation, giving judgments, SIR, on whatever you ask of him. Fussell's book helped me think again about thinking (and maybe especially writing) as an exercise in genre--which means something that's not so lonely. This, again, was a very timely book for me to read, and I am glad I chanced across it in that basement, and even more glad that I took a class about Samuel Johnson way back in college.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samuel Johnson was from another time and wrote in a style that has not aged well for most readers. Fussell is a great writer and historian, but this effort seemed more like a cataloguing of things. Life as a laundry list can be dry.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A careful, thoughtful, and reflective reading of the type of writer whose work merits that fine degree of inspection. Sometimes pugnacious but more often sensitive. An excellent work for any fan of Samuel Johnson, or of 18th century English literature generally.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tried to read this book 2 or 3 times and cannot stick with it and don't know if I'll ever finish. I've read several Fussell books and really, really liked some of them -- The Great War and Modern Memory is one of the best books ever -- but it's time to hang up on this one.

I owned this once but probably gave it away -- if I find I haven't, I will.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

[Cassandra]

Made it to page 72 before it was due back at the library.

An interesting thought - "In considering Johnson's vigorous but richly inconsistent approach to literature, we have perceived his implicit unwillingness to decide finally whether literature is essentially an objective function related to a world of fixed literary forms outside the rider and validated by the impact of the work on the reader; or whether literature is essentially a private and internal function validated by its accuracy in registering the state of the writer's convictions or emotions at the moment of composition" (62).