by Frank Brady
First published 1984
Samuel Johnson stands as one of England's towering literary figures, the man who gave the English language its first comprehensive dictionary and shaped literary criticism for generations. Frank Brady presents Johnson's complete range of work in this comprehensive collection. Readers will find Johnson's famous novel Rasselas alongside his celebrated poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes." The volume includes his influential Prefaces to Shakespeare, which established new standards for literary analysis, and selections from his groundbreaking Dictionary. Johnson's periodical essays from The Rambler and The Idler reveal his moral philosophy and social observations. Brady also includes Johnson's biographical and critical writings that influenced how we read literature. Beyond these well-known pieces, the collection offers substantial portions of Johnson's lesser-known prose, poetry, personal letters, and private journals. These intimate writings reveal the man behind the public intellectual, showing his struggles with depression, his deep friendships, and his passionate engagement with the moral questions of his age.
Genres: biography, english-literature, literary-criticism, literary-fiction, non-fiction, biography-memoir, criticism, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: biographical, literary-analysis
Period: 19th-century
872 pages · Paperback · Oxford University Press