Rating: 
Summary: Would have enjoyed a cohesive narrative more
Review: I picked up this book after reading that it's style of recording a subject verbatim was mimicked by Lillian Ross in her famous "The New Yorker" magazine article on Ernest Hemingway. Following Ernest Hemingway around with a pad and pencil in hand she simply copied everything that he said over a period of days. James Boswell used the same approach when he recorded the "Life of Samuel Johnson".I had always thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson as being the most important literary critic from the 18th century. At least that is what Harold Bloom, the Yale literary critic, said. So I was disappointed that Boswell's "Life of Johnson" did not talk too much about literature. Rather Boswell takes us along as Johnson drinks "copious amounts of wine" and makes fun of the Scotch, the Irish, women, and certain facets of marriage. This dialogue is entertaining usually. But when Johnson supports the British class system and attacks the American patriots (this was 1776 after all) I found it annoying. Boswell mentions Johnson's literature but does not delve into it. He spent some pages talking about Johnson's dictionary that he wrote with the help of two editorial assistants. (That was quite a feat if you consider that the French dictionnaire of the same period was put together by a team of scholars.) I would have enjoyed it more if Johnson or Boswell had talked about Boswell's book on Shakespeare, for example. He only mentions these books as the events surrounding their publication or the King's interest in them intersect with Johnson's life. As other reviewers have pointed out this book is not a biography. Rather is in a amalagamation of Johnson's visits to his friends and a dialogue of what he said there. Boswell's sayings are often quoted and those recorded here are sometimes quite famous or funny. Famous: "One may lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink." Funny: "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities". My one criticism of this book is how it hops from one vignette to another with no continuity between the scenes. It is a copendium of tales rather than a lengthy dialogue. That might be why one reviewer said you could dive into it at random and find something worthwhile at every page.
Rating:
Summary: Would have enjoyed a cohesive narrative more
Review: I picked up this book after reading that it's style of recording a subject verbatim was mimicked by Lillian Ross in her famous "The New Yorker" magazine article on Ernest Hemingway. Following Ernest Hemingway around with a pad and pencil in hand she simply copied everything that he said over a period of days. James Boswell used the same approach when he recorded the "Life of Samuel Johnson". I had always thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson as being the most important literary critic from the 18th century. At least that is what Harold Bloom, the Yale literary critic, said. So I was disappointed that Boswell's "Life of Johnson" did not talk too much about literature. Rather Boswell takes us along as Johnson drinks "copious amounts of wine" and makes fun of the Scotch, the Irish, women, and certain facets of marriage. This dialogue is entertaining usually. But when Johnson supports the British class system and attacks the American patriots (this was 1776 after all) I found it annoying. Boswell mentions Johnson's literature but does not delve into it. He spent some pages talking about Johnson's dictionary that he wrote with the help of two editorial assistants. (That was quite a feat if you consider that the French dictionnaire of the same period was put together by a team of scholars.) I would have enjoyed it more if Johnson or Boswell had talked about Boswell's book on Shakespeare, for example. He only mentions these books as the events surrounding their publication or the King's interest in them intersect with Johnson's life. As other reviewers have pointed out this book is not a biography. Rather is in a amalagamation of Johnson's visits to his friends and a dialogue of what he said there. Boswell's sayings are often quoted and those recorded here are sometimes quite famous or funny. Famous: "One may lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink." Funny: "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities". My one criticism of this book is how it hops from one vignette to another with no continuity between the scenes. It is a copendium of tales rather than a lengthy dialogue. That might be why one reviewer said you could dive into it at random and find something worthwhile at every page.
Rating:
Summary: Would have enjoyed a cohesive narrative more
Review: I picked up this book after reading that it's style of recording a subject verbatim was mimicked by Lillian Ross in her famous "The New Yorker" magazine article on Ernest Hemingway. Following Ernest Hemingway around with a pad and pencil in hand she simply copied everything that he said over a period of days. James Boswell used the same approach when he recorded the "Life of Samuel Johnson". I had always thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson as being the most important literary critic from the 18th century. At least that is what Harold Bloom, the Yale literary critic, said. So I was disappointed that Boswell's "Life of Johnson" did not talk too much about literature. Rather Boswell takes us along as Johnson drinks "copious amounts of wine" and makes fun of the Scotch, the Irish, women, and certain facets of marriage. This dialogue is entertaining usually. But when Johnson supports the British class system and attacks the American patriots (this was 1776 after all) I found it annoying. Boswell mentions Johnson's literature but does not delve into it. He spent some pages talking about Johnson's dictionary that he wrote with the help of two editorial assistants. (That was quite a feat if you consider that the French dictionnaire of the same period was put together by a team of scholars.) I would have enjoyed it more if Johnson or Boswell had talked about Boswell's book on Shakespeare, for example. He only mentions these books as the events surrounding their publication or the King's interest in them intersect with Johnson's life. As other reviewers have pointed out this book is not a biography. Rather is in a amalagamation of Johnson's visits to his friends and a dialogue of what he said there. Boswell's sayings are often quoted and those recorded here are sometimes quite famous or funny. Famous: "One may lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink." Funny: "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities". My one criticism of this book is how it hops from one vignette to another with no continuity between the scenes. It is a copendium of tales rather than a lengthy dialogue. That might be why one reviewer said you could dive into it at random and find something worthwhile at every page.
Rating: 
Summary: Read this first
Review: If you feel inclined to read Bainbridge's 'According to Queenie', please read a decent life of the man first: if not Boswell's, then Thrale's; if not Thrale's, then read the man himself.
Rating:
Summary: James Boswell presents Johnson in "Cinema Verite"
Review: James Boswell met Johnson when he (Boswell) was 23 and Johnson was 63. As a result, the emphasis of Boswell's biography is on Johnson's later years, but oh, what a record Boswell has left us. Boswell provoked Johnson to comment on a wide variety of topics, and recorded Johnson's doings with his circle of friends and colleagues. Boswell was a pleasant companion for Johnson, who usually accepted Boswell's constant probes (and even accompanied Boswell on a tour of the Highlands in 1773). Through it all, Boswell took notes, and jotted down everything Johnson said, recording many of Johnson's most famous comments. As a result, Boswell's biography of this great man of letters was a landmark biography, different from all biographies which came before, and still a point of comparison for biographies today. If you can get past Boswell's rather (in my opinion) obsequious tone, you will enjoy the ride very much. This Oxford World's Classics edition, edited by JD Fleeman, has a wonderful set of notes not found in other editions. It is a very affordable and thorough edition.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book (Bad Edition)
Review: Needless to say, Boswell's LIFE OF JOHNSON is one of the preeminent works of biography and should be read by anyone interested in Johnson or the genre. It is a great book (also great is W. Jackson Bate's SAMUEL JOHNSON [1st published 1975]which is a MUST for anyone interested in Johnson). But although I love the Everyman's Library, I do not recommend this edition of Boswell. Unlike the usual quality of the Everyman's Library, its Boswell is rife with typographical errors (there's even missing text!). Though it's the only edition of Boswell I've read, I regret that a correct edition is not on my bookshelf. That being said, if this is the only affordable hardcover version you can find -- and you buy only hardcovers -- go ahead and purchase the Everyman's despite the numerous and distracting errors.
Rating:
Summary: The Biography
Review: Surely this is "The Biography" in the same sense that to the Scholastic thinkers, Aristotle was "The Philosopher." More to the point, it is an endlessly fascinating book, one of those rare works that can be opened at random with consistently rewarding results. Johnson, of course, is one of those rare characters who demonstrates that life is not necessarily less rich than fiction, and Boswell is an entertaining (and amusingly exasperating) chronicler. The "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" is also well worth reading and randomly revisiting. However, I'm somewhat alarmed by the comments below about the accuracy of this version. I bought this because it was a decent-looking hardback version--I had actually read a library copy (some long out-of-print edition). Could some reviewer please explain the deviations? My skimming and minor re-reading hasn't revealed anything glaring yet, but it's been a while since my original reading, and I haven't sat down for a long Boswell read in a few years.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: This book is a fascinating look at Boswell as well as Johnson, ant at 18th century England too --from my point of view as a scientist focused in old age on historical reading. Read Boswell on Johnson instead of that novel your book club is peddling!
Rating:
Summary: Must buy. And read.
Review: This book will redefine your concepts of biography, of philology and of intellect. However critically James Boswell is rated as a writer, the fact remains that his biography of Johnson remains the standard by which all others are judged, and by which they ultimately fall--flat on their condescending faces. Who was Samuel Johnson? He was, in one sense, the first literary celebrity. His fabled dictionary of the English language was, a few years down the road, superceded and greatly improved upon by the dictionary written by Noah Webster. His tour of Scotland and the book that ensued from it hardly rank with the other literary giants of English. And his essays, indisputably brilliant, remain sadly that: forms of literature seldom read, and lacking the artistic force of the play, the novel, the poem. What Boswell shows us about Johnson is that he was the sharpest conversationalist of his time in a society that cultivated the very finest of witty speakers. Living off the beneficence of friends, off a royally-provided pension, and leading what he readily acknowledged to be a life of idleness, Johnson was a sought-after personality invigorated by one of the brightest literary minds ever. Boswell introduces the genius, his pathos, his melancholy, his piety, his warmth, and most of all his stinging wit. That he loved and respected Johnson, and sought to honor his memory, can only be doubted by an utter cynic or someone serving a lifetime of durance in academia. "All intellectual improvement arises from leisure..." "You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it." "Sir, they [Americans] are a parcel of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." "He was dull in a new way, and that made people think him great." "...it is our duty to maintain the subordination of civilized society..." "It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession." Boswell: "...you are an idle set of people." Johnson: "Sir, we are a city of philosophers." "We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards." And best of all, and immortal to boot, is this: "No man but a blockhead writes, except for money." Buy this book. Read it. It's humanity at its wittiest and most complex.
Rating: 
Summary: Abridged Version
Review: This is an abridged version. If you want an unabridged version, get the Life of Johnson (Oxford World's Classics) [UNABRIDGED.
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