Samuel Johnson

by Leslie Stephen

""Samuel Johnson"" by Stephen Leslie is a biography of the famous 18th-century English writer, critic, and lexicographer, Samuel Johnson. The book explores Johnson's life and work, from his childhood in Lichfield to his struggles with poverty and depression, his literary successes, and his lasting impact on the English language. The author provides a detailed account of Johnson's personal life, including his relationships with family and friends, his religious beliefs, and his political views. The book also delves into Johnson's literary achievements, including his essays, poetry, and his monumental work, ""A Dictionary of the English Language."" Throughout the book, Stephen Leslie offers insightful analysis of Johnson's writings, as well as his impact on the literary and intellectual culture of his time. The biography is well-researched and engaging, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of one of the most important figures in English literature. Overall, ""Samuel Johnson"" offers a fascinating portrait of a complex and influential figure, and is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of English literature.Boswell saw in him chiefly the great dictator of conversation; and though the reports of Johnson's talk represent his character in spite of some qualifications with unusual fulness, there were many traits very inadequately revealed at the Mitre or the Club, at Mrs. Thrale's, or in meetings with Wilkes or Reynolds. We may catch some glimpses from his letters and diaries of that inward life which consisted generally in a long succession of struggles against an oppressive and often paralysing melancholy.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Biography

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1878

About the author

Sir Leslie Stephen, KCB was an English author, critic and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
Leslie Stephen was the primary editor of the Dictionary of National Biography from 1885-1891

Stephen was born at Kensington Gore in London, the brother of James Fitzjames Stephen and son of Sir James Stephen. His family had belonged to the Clapham Sect, the early 19th century group of mainly evangelical Christian social reformers. At his father's house he saw a good deal of the Macaulays, James Spedding, Sir Henry Taylor and Nassau Senior. After studying at Eton College, King's College London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (20th wrangler) in 1854 and M.A. in 1857, Stephen remained for several years a fellow and tutor of his college. He recounted some of his experiences in a chapter in his Life of Fawcett as well as in some less formal Sketches from Cambridge: By a Don (1865). These sketches were reprinted from the Pall Mall Gazette, to the proprietor of which, George Smith, he had been introduced by his brother. It was at Smith's house at Hampstead that Stephen met his first wife, Harriet Marian (1840 – 1875), daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, with whom he had a daughter, Laura Makepeace Stephen (1870 – 1945); after her death he married Julia Prinsep Jackson (1846 – 1895), widow of Herbert Duckworth. With her he had four children: Vanessa, Thoby, Virginia & Adrian.

In the 1850s, Stephen and his brother James Fitzjames Stephen were invited by Frederick Denison Maurice to lecture at The Working Men's College. Leslie Stephen became a member of the College's governing College Corporation. He died in Kensington.

Reviews

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. He wisely eschews the writing of a properly-so-called biography, done to death of course (see the excellent, much later one by Hibbert, or of course Boswell's own!), and focuses on other aspects while still bringing Johnson's life to...life.
I picked it up because it's by Leslie Stephen, and I was curious to see how he wrote: very well, as it turns out, in that late, late 19th-century English style, inimitable really.
And it's worth the price of admission for lines like these alone:
'[Johnson’s] most ambitious work, Irene, can be read by men in whom a sense of duty has been abnormally developed'.
one almost wishes his daughter had been so funny :)

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mentioned in A Shadow in the Garden: A Biographers’ Tale by James Atlas
“A revelation”

Careful - the book I bought is not readable - scam
Translation