{"title":"Books by James Boswell","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780140436624","title":"The Life of Samuel Johnson","description":"In Boswell's \u003ci\u003eLife of Samuel Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe much of our knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of richly detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure, vigorously engaging and fencing with great contemporaries such as Garrick, Goldsmith, Burney and Burke, and of course with Boswell himself.  Yet anxieties and obsessions also darkened Johnson's private hours, and Boswell's attentiveness to every facet of Johnson's character makes this biography as moving as it is entertaining. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In this entirely new and unabridged edition, David Womersley's introduction examines the motives behind Boswell's work, and the differences between the two men that drew them to each other. It also contains chronologies of Boswell and Johnson, appendices and comprehensive indexes, including biographical details.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224770916725,"sku":"9780140436624","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780140436624_eb59a2a6-59ee-421f-977e-a4c9b979a4dd.jpg?v=1786011578"},{"product_id":"9780199540211","title":"Life of Johnson","description":"Samuel Johnson was a poet, essayist, dramatist, and pioneering lexicographer, but his continuing reputation depends less on his literary output than on the fortunate accident of finding an ideal biographer in James Boswell. As Johnson's constant and admiring companion, Boswell was able to record not only the outward events of his life, but also the humour, wit, and sturdy common sense of his conversation. His brilliant portrait of a major literary figure of the eighteenth century, enriched by historical and social detail, remains a monument to the art of biography. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227084730741,"sku":"9780199540211","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780199540211_9a9488ed-3cef-40b3-b2e8-01047a4431ef.jpg?v=1786012886"},{"product_id":"9781857152531","title":"A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland \u0026 The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen James Boswell persuaded Samuel Johnson to embark on a tour of Boswell’s native Scotland in 1773, the adventure resulted in two magnificent books, Johnson’s \u003ci\u003eJourney to the Western Islands of Scotland\u003c\/i\u003e and Boswell’s\u003ci\u003eJournal of a Tour to the Hebrides\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohnson offers a magisterial account of what was then a remote and rugged land, while Boswell throws further light on the friend and mentor whom he immortalized in his biography.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether, they make up a brilliant portrait of two very different and very remarkable men exploring a feudal world which was soon to pass away for ever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308586217845,"sku":"9781857152531","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781857152531_ec2507df-4b58-45bd-bebb-7e8e35afdad4.jpg?v=1786034407"},{"product_id":"9789357270328","title":"Boswell's Life of Johnson","description":"James Boswell wrote a biography of English author Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1791 titled The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. The book was an immediate critical and commercial success and marked a turning point in the evolution of the contemporary biography genre. It stands out for its in-depth descriptions of Johnson's discourse. Although many have hailed it as the finest biography ever written in English, other contemporary critics disagree, saying the work cannot be regarded as a legitimate biography.In 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell first saw his subject personally; he then conducted more studies to span the whole of Johnson's life. Johnson's life is heavily distorted in the biography since Boswell alters many of his quotations and even suppresses some of his comments. However, the book is regarded as both a significant literary work and a source of knowledge about Johnson and his day.Although there are several biographies and biographers of Samuel Johnson, the most well-known and often read one today is James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311175381365,"sku":"9789357270328","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9789357270328_5439a3a8-96e0-43df-95a4-dc1295476a1e.jpg?v=1786031463"},{"product_id":"9780140432213","title":"A The Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"I mentioned our design to Voltaire,\" wrote Boswell. \"He looked at me as if I had talked of going to the North Pole …\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs it turned out, Johnson enjoyed their Scottish journey (although the land was not quite so wild and barbaric as perhaps he had hoped), and Boswell delighted in it. The year was 1773, they were sixty-three and thirty-two years old, and had been friends for ten years. Their journals, published together here, perfectly complement each other. Johnson's majestic prose and hawk eye for curious detail take in everything from the stone arrowheads found in the Hebrides, to the 'medicinal' waters of Loch Ness and \"the mischiefs of emigration.\" Meanwhile, it is very lucky that as Johnson was observing Scotland, Boswell was observing Johnson. His record is perceptive, highly entertaining and full of sardonic wit; for him, as for us, it is an appetizer for \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311564140917,"sku":"9780140432213","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780140432213_faaeff9b-3d38-418d-a801-7cb8227b8154.jpg?v=1786011464"},{"product_id":"9780198798743","title":"A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides","description":"In 1773, James Boswell made a long-planned journey across the Scottish Highlands with his English friend Samuel Johnson; the two spent more than a hundred days together. Their tour of the Hebrides resulted in two books, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), a kind of locodescriptive ethnography and Johnson's most important work between his Shakespeare edition and his Lives of the Poets. The other, Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson (1785), a travel narrative experimenting with biography, the first application of the techniques he would use in his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). These two works form a natural pair and, owing that they cover much of the same material, are often read together, focusing on the Scottish highlands.The text presents a lightly-edited version of both works, preserving the original orthography and corrected typographical errors to fit modern grammar standards. The introduction and notes provide clear and concise explanations on Johnson and Boswell's respective careers, their friendship and grand biographical projects. It also examines the Scottish Enlightenment, the status of England and Scotland during the Reformation through to the Union of the Crowns, and the Jacobite","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311610311029,"sku":"9780198798743","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780198798743_214eebb3-29c6-4eee-8e45-cdab932a6788.jpg?v=1786012610"},{"product_id":"the-life-of-samuel-johnson","title":"The Life of Samuel Johnson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eConsidered one of the best written biographies of all-time, \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Samuel Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e gives insight into the glowing mystique of the prominent English writer.\u003c\/b\u003e By incorporating key elements from his past and personal relationships, James Boswell creates an extensive narrative of the revered figure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawn from Boswell's own journals, the author recounts the life and experiences of Samuel Johnson. He uses his personal connection to investigate Johnson's origin and rise to power. His career is filtered through brief episodes highlighting obstacles and successes alongside his notable peers. It's an intimate record of the celebrated writer and fixture within literary circles.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough his compelling writing, James Boswell successfully illustrates the character and reality of Samuel Johnson. The biography explores his strengths and weaknesses as well as his motivations and fears. Boswell's input is crucial to the story structure, delivering an informative and impactful narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Samuel Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e is both modern and readable.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince our inception in 2020, \u003cb\u003eMint Editions\u003c\/b\u003e has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484289114485,"sku":"9781513268569","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781513268569.jpg?v=1786266344"},{"product_id":"the-correspondence-of-james-boswell-and-sir-william-forbes-of-pitsligo","title":"The Correspondence of James Boswell and Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo","description":"This volume, tenth in the Yale Boswell Editions Research Series of correspondence, collects the letters exchanged between James Boswell (1740–1795) and Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo (1739–1806), eminent banker, civic improver, philanthropist, literary and cultural patron, and lay leader of Edinburgh’s ‘English Episcopal’ community. Forbes served Boswell as his most valued Scottish advisor, an affectionate and admired counsellor to whom he would often turn for personal, financial, moral, and religious guidance, and whom he would name executor of his estate and co-guardian of his children. Their friendship probably began in 1759 as new members of the same Masonic lodge in Edinburgh, and it deepened over time, and included their families. Boswell shared with Forbes significant portions of his private journal, and discussed with him his authorial ambitions as he developed the innovative biographical technique that would characterize his major publications on Samuel Johnson. He sought Forbes’s opinions about his original 1773 account of what would become his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson (1785), and about his journal of his 1777 visit with Johnson at Ashbourne, later used in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Boswell, in turn, broadened and enriched Forbes’s social range, providing a gateway into his remarkable circle of friends in London, in particular the members of the ‘Literary Club’. As Richard B. Sher explains in his introduction, none of Boswell’s other close friends straddled Boswell’s various worlds—his family life and professional career in Edinburgh, his lairdship of the Auchinleck estate in Ayrshire, his literary life in London—in this way. The volume, while thoroughly documenting the friendship that lies at its core, also illuminates the lives of Boswell and Forbes individually, especially Boswell’s final decade in London. It publishes a total of 111 comprehensively annotated letters, few of which have appeared previously in print: 79 exchanged between Forbes and Boswell between 1772 and 1794, and 32 involving other correspondents. The edition draws extensively on unpublished manuscripts in both the Boswell Collection at Yale and the Fettercairn Papers in the National Library of Scotland, including revealing letters from Forbes to his beloved wife ‘Betsy’, Lady Forbes, and to his close friend James Beattie, who would become Forbes’s own biographical subject in the decade after Boswell’s death.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484345213301,"sku":"9781474461528","price":115.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781474461528.jpg?v=1786266408"},{"product_id":"to-the-hebrides","title":"To The Hebrides","description":"Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides are widely regarded as among the best pieces of travel writing ever produced. Johnson and Boswell spent the autumn of 1773 touring Scotland as far west as the islands of Skye, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Ulva, Inchkenneth and Iona. Highly readable, often profound, and at times very funny, their accounts of the ‘jaunt’ are above all a valuable record of a society undergoing rapid change.In this pioneering new edition, Ronald Black brings together the two men’s starkly contrasting accounts of each of the thirteen stages of the journey. He also restores to Boswell’s text 20,000 words from his journal which were denied entry to his book because they were intimate, defamatory, or about the islands rather than Johnson. The endnotes incorporate Boswell’s footnotes, translations of Latin passages, a clear summary of pre-existing information on the two texts, and a fresh focus on what the two men actually found on their trip. To the Hebrides also includes contemporary prints by Thomas Rowlandson, seventeen new maps and a comprehensive index.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487946088821,"sku":"9781780270319","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780270319.jpg?v=1786355169"},{"product_id":"london-journal-1762-1763","title":"London Journal 1762-1763","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe journals of a legendary Scottish writer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdinburgh-born James Boswell, at twenty-two, kept a daily diary of his eventful second stay in London from 1762 to 1763. This journal, not discovered for more than 150 years, is a deft, frank and artful record of adventures ranging from his vividly recounted love affair with a Covent Garden actress to his first amusingly bruising meeting with Samuel Johnson, to whom Boswell would later become both friend and biographer. The London Journal 1762-63 is a witty, incisive and compellingly candid testament to Boswell's prolific talents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. 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This edition retains those passages that show the true, somewhat larger-than-life, character of Dr Johnson, his love of society and enquiring mind, and, in so doing, reveals the fascinating environment of 18th-century England - and particularly London - in which Johnson lived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA masterpiece of biography, abridged with care, this edition offers the most engaging route into Boswell's unforgettable account of Samuel Johnson and his age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503711527285,"sku":"9781398872561","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781398872561.jpg?v=1786867421"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-james-boswell.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}