1,725,162 research outputs found

    Samuel Johnson: authority for an age

    Get PDF
    The following thesis is concerned with Samuel Johnson’s authority both as a personality and as a writer. It is almost impossible to think of Johnson in terms other than those of an authority. The use of Johnsonian aphorisms to clinch an argument, as though they were imbued with inherent legitimacy, is frequent, and throughout the pages of Boswell's Life, which is the organ through which Johnson is most often revealed, his role as an authority, and in particular, a moralist, is stressed. Johnson’s authority is viewed through various aspects of his life. There are chapters on: his life as a social agent, his Dictionary, his Literary Criticism, his troubled religious life and the Rambler Essays which did more to secure him authority in his own age than any other writings. There is a common thread working through all the chapters. It becomes quite clear that the authority which Johnson obtained was based upon his honest acceptance of his own humanity. Though this fact gave his views legitimacy, it often prevented the type of consistency of thought which we feel that we are entitled to from the pen of a serious moralist. It is this strange fact which provides the matter and the interest of this thesis

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 6 contains the second part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 2 contains the first part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, and Johnson was criticised for brusque treatment of well-connected courtier poets now largely forgotten, the work was a great success.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 4 contains the third part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, the work was a great success. The volume also includes miscellaneous historical and literary biographies of figures such as Paolo Sarpi, Sir Francis Drake and Roger Ascham.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 3 contains the second part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it set a new standard for English literary biography. Although not all of the subjects have been regarded as eminent by posterity, and Johnson was criticised for brusque treatment of well-connected courtier poets now largely forgotten, the work was a great success.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 5 contains the first part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 10 contains a mixture of items – political tracts on taxation and current affairs; miscellaneous short works including book reviews and papers on agriculture, French prisoners of war, and the building of Blackfriars' Bridge; and A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. These show the range of his interests and the ease with which he could turn his pen to any topic.</jats:p

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

    No full text
    Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 11 contains poetry in English and Latin, prayers, and a variety of literary forms - a fantasy, The Vision of Theodore, Johnson's only play, Irene, Rasselas, which uses an oriental tale and a French form to meditate on the folly of the quest for human happiness, and The Vanity of Human Wishes, based on one of Juvenal's satires. There is also an index to the eleven-volume set.</jats:p

    The fables of pity: Rousseau, Mandeville and the animal-fable

    Get PDF
    Copyright @ 2012 Edinburgh University PressPrompted by Derrida’s work on the animal-fable in eighteenth-century debates about political power, this article examines the role played by the fiction of the animal in thinking of pity as either a natural virtue (in Rousseau’s Second Discourse) or as a natural passion (in Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees). The war of fables between Rousseau and Mandeville – and their hostile reception by Samuel Johnson and Adam Smith – reinforce that the animal-fable illustrates not so much the proper of man as the possibilities and limitations of a moral philosophy that is unable to address the political realities of the state

    Samuel Johnson

    No full text
    Samuel Johnson var en britisk prosaist, lyriker, ordbogsforfatter og kritiker, hvis flittige og forskelligartede skribentvirksomhed og almindeligt respekterede dømmekraft gjorde ham til en af 1700-tallets ledende britiske kulturpersonligheder
    corecore