Title: Designing the Life of Johnson
First published: 2002
Description: "For over two centuries James Boswell's massive biography of Samuel Johnson has been both reverenced and reviled. Yet neither its admirers nor its critics have fully understood how the book was designed to work upon them. Boswell himself is partly to blame: throughout the Life he directs attention away from artistry to industry, from creative choices to dedicated researches. Yet his working manuscript, one of the twentieth century's greatest literary discoveries, tells a much different tale. Designing the Life of Johnson, the first study of its kind, reconstructs Boswell's models and methods by charting this textual labyrinth. It begins by analysing the stages that led to the first edition, goes on to reveal the impact of portrait and theatre-piece upon the structure of the Life, and ends by uncovering the transformation of Johnson from savage into sage. The result is a more subtle, more vital assessment of Boswell the designer - and an enhanced awareness of biography's power to make life into art."--Jacket.
Subjects: History and criticism, English Authors, Biography as a literary form, Authors, English, Biography, Boswell, james, 1740-1795, Johnson, samuel, 1709-1784, The life of Johnson (Boswell), Biographies, Literarische Technik, Literaire biografie, Histoire et critique, Biographie (Genre littéraire), Life of Samuel Johnson (Boswell, James), Écrivains anglais
People: James Boswell (1740-1795), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
LC classification: PR3533.B7 R44 2002