Lives that Never Grow Old Part of a radical new series --edited by Richard Holmes -- that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Johnson's book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive. When he first came to London, young Samuel Johnson was befriended by the flamboyant poet, playwright and blackmailer, Richard Savage. Walking the backstreets at night, he learned Savage's extraordinary story -- supposedly persecuted by a 'cruel mother', sentenced to death for a murder in a brothel, appointed Volunteer Poet Laureate to the Queen, and finally broken and outcast. With this moving and intimate account, Johnson created a brilliant black comedy of 18th-century Grub Street which revolutionised English biography by its psychological realism. Yet Savage's destructive charm and delusions of grandeur sometimes even threatened to entangle Johnson himself.

Johnson on Savage: The Life of Mr Richard Savage by Samuel Johnson (Classic Biographies)

Biographies & Memoirs

Johnson, Samuel

Arts & Literature

Harper-perennial

Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose (Rinehart editions, 57)

Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose

Literature & Fiction

Holt; Rinehart; Winston

This edition includes all Samuel Johnson's poems, a final version of "The Vanity of Human Wishes" and a first draft of this work contained in an appendix, as well as a selection from his Latin poems and from "Irene", his single attempt at verse drama.

Complete English Poems, The (Johnson, Samuel) (Penguin Classics)

Literary

Penguin Classics

1976 Penguin Publication. Edited and introduction by D.J. Enright.

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (Penguin Classics)

"I mentioned our design to Voltaire," wrote Boswell. "He looked at me as if I had talked of going to the North Pole …" As 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 The Life of Johnson. For 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.

A Journey to the Western Islands Scotland

Boswell, James

Professionals & Academics

Dr Johnson on Shakespeare

Penguin Books, Ltd.

As well as containing the major texts in Wimsatt's volume, Woudhuysen includes more of Johnson's annotations of individual plays and his essay "Preface to Shakespeare". It looks at Johnson's studies on Shakespeare in their 18th century context and analyzes their significance and achievement.

Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare (New Penguin Shakespeare Library)

Dramas & Plays

Penguin Group USA

The complete English poems; (Penguin English poets)

Poetry

Penguin

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, leaves the easy life of the Happy Valley, accompanied by his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah, and the much-travelled philosopher Imlac. Their journey takes them to Egypt, where they study the various conditions of men's lives, before returning home in a "conclusion in which nothing is concluded." Johnson's tale is not only a satire on optimism, but also an expression of truth about the human mind and its infinite capacity for hope. For 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.

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (Penguin Classics)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Surprising, colorful, and long-forgotten entries from the most famous dictionary in the history of the English language Samuel Johnson's best-known work, A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), is the most influential and idiosyncratic lexicon ever written and was used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, the Brontës and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. This anthology includes 4,000 of the most representative, entertaining, and historically fascinating entries, covering subjects from fashion to food, science to sex, and given in full with original spelling and examples of usage from Shakespeare to Milton. For 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.

A Dictionary of the English Language: An Anthology (Penguin Classics)

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