Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings

Thanks to Boswells monumental biography of Samuel Johnson, we remember Dr. Johnson today as a great wit and conversationalist, the rationalist epitome and the sage of the Enlightenment. He is more often quoted than read, his name invoked in party conversation on such diverse topics as marriage, sleep, deceit, mental concentration, and patriotism, to generally humorous effect. But in Johnsons own day, he was best known as an essayist, critic, and lexicographer: a gifted writer possessed of great force of mind and wisdom. Writing a century after Johnson, Ruskin wrote of Johnsons essays: He taught me to measure life, and distrust fortunehe saved me forever from false thoughts and futile speculations. Peter Martin here presents the heart of Johnson, a selection of some of Johnsons best moral and critical essays. At the center of this collection are the periodical essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler. Also included are Johnsons great moral fable, Rasselas; the Prefaces to the Dictionary and his edition of Shakespeare; and selections from Lives of the Poets. Together, these worksallied in their literary, social, and moral concernsare the ones that continue to speak urgently to readers today.