The Journals of James Boswell: 1762-1795

by James Boswell, John Wain (Editor)

Writer, rake, wit, traveler, and man-about-town, James Boswell kept a diary for thirty-three years, beginning just before his first trip to London and extending over his eventful life till shortly before his death in 1795. This one-volume selection of Boswell's journal entries, gathered and introduced by the distinguished poet and novelist John Wain, brings to life both a pre-eminent chronicler of eighteenth-century Britain and the tumultuous land about which he wrote so well.

Boswell went everywhere, knew everyone, and never missed an opportunity to enjoy himself. His journals are compulsively mad, funny, pathetic, somber, candid about his uncontrollable appetites for women and alcohol, always touching in his fits of remorse and contrition toward his wife Margaret, who emerges from these pages as something of a heroine. Here is Boswell the clubman, the aspiring politician, the Scots laird proud of his ancient family, the observer of life. He collected celebrities (and wrote about visits to Rousseau and Voltaire, a last interview with the dying David Hume, a gossiping conversation with Sir Joshua Reynolds), yet he was no mere success-worshipper; admiration and love for his father-figure, Samuel Johnson, were as genuine as his love of life and his gift for friendship. Boswell once said he wrote mainly to store up entertainment for his afterlife. He was certainly successful in providing entertainment for those who read him now.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Classics, Diary, Journal, Autobiography

445 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

James Boswell, 10th Laird of Auchinleck and 1st Baronet was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the eldest son of a judge, Alexander Boswell, 8th Laird of Auchinleck and his wife Euphemia Erskine, Lady Auchinleck. Boswell's mother was a strict Calvinist, and he felt that his father was cold to him. Boswell, who is best known as Samuel Johnson’s biographer, inherited his father’s estate Auchinleck in Ayrshire. His name has passed into the English language as a term (Boswell, Boswellian, Boswellism) for a constant companion and observer.

Boswell is also known for the detailed and frank journals that he wrote for long periods of his life, which remained undiscovered until the 1920s. These included voluminous notes on the grand tour of Europe that he took as a young nobleman and, subsequently, of his tour of Scotland with Johnson. His journals also record meetings and conversations with eminent individuals belonging to The Club, including Lord Monboddo, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds and Oliver Goldsmith. His written works focus chiefly on others, but he was admitted as a good companion and accomplished conversationalist in his own right.

Reviews

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Journals of James Boswell, 1762-1795,” selected and introduced by John Wain (Yale, 1991). Now what am I going to read? Wain, himself a poet and novelist, and who also wrote a biography of Samuel Johnson, here presents a distilled yet uncensored selection of Boswell’s journals, as well as assorted letters and a few other writings, beginning with the account of his life he wrote as an introduction to Rousseau in 1764, then continuing from his first adult journey to London and on through the rest. Johnson said, “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life,” and Boswell never tired. What an extraordinary life he led, in Britain and Europe in the second half of the 18th century. He dined, drank, conversed with everyone: Wilkes, Burke, Garrick, Rousseau, Voltaire, Pitt, Goldsmith, Reynolds and dozens more of the great and the lesser. He wrote down everything that happened, what everyone said, what they ate, what they drank, how they dressed, how they traveled. He wrote frankly of his own libertinism, the pretty maids, wealthy wives, streetwalkers and every female he bedded (or if without a bed, in a doorway). And his fears of disease. His methods of courtship, his romantic nature and willingness to lie to each of them to get into bed. His constant changes of mood, from great elation to the depths of misery and melancholy. His failures, as a lawyer, his inability to succeed in the official life of England, his worries as a laird and father. His deep devotion and love of Peggie Montgomerie, the cousin whom he finally wedded, much to his own surprise; and his happy debauchery whenever he was away from her. His writing sparkles with observations and insight. Much of the conversation he recounts is fascinating. These men spoke like students investigating the world all through their lives. Also, this is what it is like not to have to actually work for a living (most of the time). He awakens, eventually, breakfasts at one place with one group, travels to visit another, has tea, then dinner, then a play or a party or another group, then dinner, with much drinking throughout. One envies this world---it must exist somewhere, yet I am not a part of it nor likely ever will be. But I can read of it, and for that I am grateful.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?is...

[Redsteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read Boswell's London journals, but this book covers his later writings as well (including his tour of Italy). He is extremely readable (especially when you consider that he's writing more than 200 years ago) and really funny: one minute he's arguing against the doctrine of transubstantiaion with a Jesuit scholar (or sucking up to Rousseau) and the next he's chasing after prostitutes and getting all clapped up. The number of times he contracts VD in life, it's suprising he didn't die of syphilis.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gleich im Anschluss an die Dr. Samuel Johnson Biografie von Boswell habe ich mir die Reclam Ausgabe der Londonder Tagebücher vorgenommen (James Boswell, Journal übersetzt und ausgewählt von Helmut Winter).
Wie jeder von uns wird Boswell vom Leben gebeutelt und oft kann er seinen Vorsätzen nicht treu bleiben- fällt in unvorteilhafte Verhaltensweisen zurück (käufliche Liebe und Alkohol). Das schildert er offenherzig und zumindest der Leser kann ihm nicht böse sein. Ehrgeiz und Geld sind ebenso große Themen. Er trifft Voltaire, Rousseau und Hume. Im Grunde sind die Lebensthemen des 18. Jahrhunderts die Lebensthemen unserer Zeit, da hat sich gar nichts geändert.

P.S. Beide, also Johnson und Boswell werde vom "Großkritiker" Harold Bloom als genial und überaus wichtig in der Literatur erachtet -in der Weltliteratur wohlgemerkt.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

For whatever reason, this was the most memorable piece of literature I read during undergrad at Kenyon. Big thanks to Professor Laycock for introducing me to the Tour.

[Frederick Gault · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a real weakness for Journals, especially really old ones. I won't say I've read Boswell's Journals, mostly I've dipped into them and allowed myself to be transported back in time. Sometimes the most mundane parts of daily life are the most interesting when you read how people solved the same problems 250 years ago that we struggle with today.