This study demonstrates the importance of memory in Samuel Johnson's work. Greg Clingham argues that this concept of memory is derived from the process of historical and creative writing; it is embodied in works of literature and other cultural forms. He examines Johnson's writing; including his biographical writing, as it intersects with eighteenth-century thought on literature, history, fiction and law and its subsequent compatibility with and resistance to modern theory.

A collection of new essays, commemorating the bicentenary of Boswell's Life of Johnson.

This Companion provides a unique introduction and guide to the works and life of one of the key figures in English literary history. The source of endless familiar aphorisms, the compiler of the first great dictionary in English, the greatest of essayists, and one of the most distinctive characters and conversationalists in our literary culture, Johnson is here surveyed in his entirety. Chapters on the major works, his life, conversation, letters and critical reception appear alongside fresh thematic essays, a chronology and a guide to further reading.

This is a radical introduction to the Life of Johnson.

To mark the tercentenary of Samuel Johnson's birth in 2009, the specially-commissioned essays contained here review his scholarly reputation. An international team of experts reflects authoritatively on the various dimensions of literary, historical, critical and ethical life touched by Johnson's extraordinary achievement. The volume distinctively casts its net widely and combines consistently innovative thinking on Johnson's historical role with a fresh sense of present criticism. Chapters cover subjects as diverse as Johnson's moral philosophy, his legal thought, his influence on Jane...