ORIGINS OF MODERNITY

literature

Boswell, James (1740-1795)
The life of Samuel Johnson.
(2 vols)
London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, 1791.

Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is unquestionably one of the great biographies in the English language. Indeed, in recent decades there has been much scholarly debate over wherein its greatness lies. Scholarly interest was also aroused earlier last century when a large number of hitherto unknown pages of original manuscript from the work were found, first in an ebony cabinet in 1927 and again in a stable loft in 1940. For most readers however, it is simply a work to be enjoyed and quoted. (See the caption for Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy in the Physiology & Medicine section.)