One of the books I read as a child, because I could, was the dictionary. I was hooked right from the start with words like abiogenesis. I never stopped to think about who wrote or created it. I like the quote "I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices". As a songwriter and musician, it is hard to watch performances and listen to music, without being a critic, unless the performances are mesmerizing.
Someone asked about a where to start in reading Johnson. I agree his fine Preface to Shakespeare, as you suggest, is a good start to his literary principles. But to learn about his world, I also suggest "The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped An Age" (2019) by Leo Damrosch. The Club, of course, was the one Joshua Reynolds started in an effort to relieve Johnson's depression and went on to include nearly everybody worth knowing in that era in England. I had studied and read and thought about Johnson all my adult life, had written a thesis on his infamous criticism of Milton's "Lycidas" in "Lives of the Poets." I'd also kept up with the biographies, but "The Club" wakened the world in which he lived and made me think again of all the influences on his life and thought as nothing recent has done. I recommend it highly.
Thanks for this. I agree The Club is excellent for introducing the times and the place. The use of paintings is very good. I found the content on the actual Club itself a bit thin and samey though. Too many very familiar anecdotes. It would be a good intro to the world though.
It is, of course, somewhat general by nature. Yet I know nothing like it that shows the intersection of economics, literature, science, the arts, and politics in an era when those still intersected. Coming to it after a long career in teaching, I found myself going back and looking at certain members of the group, Johnson included. The Boswell version of Johnson is always colored by a somewhat contrarian approach: Boswell baits Johnson, then reports the results. Johnson's literary criticism generally follows a similar pattern: he will take a Whig position on Milton or Donne or Thompson, e.g., as a starting point and rebut that in his criticism. He rarely identifies his opponent (the Whartons, for instance), but any literate person of his time would have understood. Indeed, this technique is often used by his opponents and is, I believe, somewhat typical of the time. Damrosch's suggestion of the world of ideas and thinking within which Johnson acted strikes me as immensely useful---not just for those interested in Johnson, but for those interested in that period. The "familiar anecdotes" are not familiar to all, you know. I wish I'd had such a coherent introduction when I began my student of Johnson's work. It reminds the reader of the real-life context within which all members of the group worked, and I think it also reminds him of the way its members influenced one another.
Good article but I am skeptical about the “fucking and drinking” quotation. Johnson scrupulously avoided vulgar language. His most famous reference to his own lustfulness was a remark about “amorous propensities.”
You can find the reference to that quote in Nokes' biography: it was reported by Garrick. The 'amorous propensities' quote was probably cleaned up by Boswell, who made Johnson look cleaner than he was in general.
One of the books I read as a child, because I could, was the dictionary. I was hooked right from the start with words like abiogenesis. I never stopped to think about who wrote or created it. I like the quote "I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices". As a songwriter and musician, it is hard to watch performances and listen to music, without being a critic, unless the performances are mesmerizing.
Someone asked about a where to start in reading Johnson. I agree his fine Preface to Shakespeare, as you suggest, is a good start to his literary principles. But to learn about his world, I also suggest "The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped An Age" (2019) by Leo Damrosch. The Club, of course, was the one Joshua Reynolds started in an effort to relieve Johnson's depression and went on to include nearly everybody worth knowing in that era in England. I had studied and read and thought about Johnson all my adult life, had written a thesis on his infamous criticism of Milton's "Lycidas" in "Lives of the Poets." I'd also kept up with the biographies, but "The Club" wakened the world in which he lived and made me think again of all the influences on his life and thought as nothing recent has done. I recommend it highly.
Thanks for this. I agree The Club is excellent for introducing the times and the place. The use of paintings is very good. I found the content on the actual Club itself a bit thin and samey though. Too many very familiar anecdotes. It would be a good intro to the world though.
It is, of course, somewhat general by nature. Yet I know nothing like it that shows the intersection of economics, literature, science, the arts, and politics in an era when those still intersected. Coming to it after a long career in teaching, I found myself going back and looking at certain members of the group, Johnson included. The Boswell version of Johnson is always colored by a somewhat contrarian approach: Boswell baits Johnson, then reports the results. Johnson's literary criticism generally follows a similar pattern: he will take a Whig position on Milton or Donne or Thompson, e.g., as a starting point and rebut that in his criticism. He rarely identifies his opponent (the Whartons, for instance), but any literate person of his time would have understood. Indeed, this technique is often used by his opponents and is, I believe, somewhat typical of the time. Damrosch's suggestion of the world of ideas and thinking within which Johnson acted strikes me as immensely useful---not just for those interested in Johnson, but for those interested in that period. The "familiar anecdotes" are not familiar to all, you know. I wish I'd had such a coherent introduction when I began my student of Johnson's work. It reminds the reader of the real-life context within which all members of the group worked, and I think it also reminds him of the way its members influenced one another.
Good article but I am skeptical about the “fucking and drinking” quotation. Johnson scrupulously avoided vulgar language. His most famous reference to his own lustfulness was a remark about “amorous propensities.”
You can find the reference to that quote in Nokes' biography: it was reported by Garrick. The 'amorous propensities' quote was probably cleaned up by Boswell, who made Johnson look cleaner than he was in general.