num_pages: 368
description: James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson is the most celebrated of all biographies, acknowledged as one of the greatest and most entertaining books in the English language. Yet Boswell himself has generally been considered little more than an idiot and condemned by posterity as a lecher and drunk. How could such a fool have written such a book? With great wit, Adam Sisman here tells the story of Boswell's presumptuous task-the making of the greatest biography of all time. Sisman traces the friendship between Boswell and Samuel Johnson, his great mentor, and provides a fascinating account of Boswell's seven-year struggle to write The Life of Samuel Johnson .
language: English
title: Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson
titlecomplete: Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson
genres: British Literature, History, Books About Books, 18th Century, Biography, Literature, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 148
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Biography/Autobiography
publisher: Penguin Books