Samuel Johnson and the Sense of History

Samuel Johnson and the Sense of History PDF Author: John A. Vance
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820333778
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
No area of Johnsonian studies has been less appreciated and more misunderstood than Johnson's response to history. Popular notions to the effect that he was insensitive to history have discouraged scholars and critics from discovering the role history played in his thinking. In this first book-length investigation of the subject, John A. Vance concludes that few misconceptions about Samuel Johnson have been so glaring as his supposed dislike of history. More specifically, in separate chapters Vance examines the development of Johnson's historical sense--from his readings, heritage, and travels to historical sites; Johnson's recall and use of historical figures and events, most notably the seventeenth-century attitude toward the most maligned member of the historical family, antiquarianism. The author also devotes two chapters to Johnson's historical writings--that is, those works in which he either incorporates history into his critical, biographical, and political discussions or those in which he clearly assumes the role of historian himself. Vance furthermore considers Johnson's views on historical facts, educative and moral history, the broadening scope of historical investigation, the nature of historical truth and skepticism, historical research, historical causation, and the historian's style.

Samuel Johnson and the Sense of History

Samuel Johnson and the Sense of History PDF Author: John A. Vance
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820333778
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
No area of Johnsonian studies has been less appreciated and more misunderstood than Johnson's response to history. Popular notions to the effect that he was insensitive to history have discouraged scholars and critics from discovering the role history played in his thinking. In this first book-length investigation of the subject, John A. Vance concludes that few misconceptions about Samuel Johnson have been so glaring as his supposed dislike of history. More specifically, in separate chapters Vance examines the development of Johnson's historical sense--from his readings, heritage, and travels to historical sites; Johnson's recall and use of historical figures and events, most notably the seventeenth-century attitude toward the most maligned member of the historical family, antiquarianism. The author also devotes two chapters to Johnson's historical writings--that is, those works in which he either incorporates history into his critical, biographical, and political discussions or those in which he clearly assumes the role of historian himself. Vance furthermore considers Johnson's views on historical facts, educative and moral history, the broadening scope of historical investigation, the nature of historical truth and skepticism, historical research, historical causation, and the historian's style.

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson PDF Author: Peter Martin
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0297856162
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The first new biography for a generation of one of the great figures of English literature Poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, critic, conversationalist and wit, Dr Johnson is one of the great figures of English literature, perhaps the most quoted English writer after Shakespeare. Our view of Johnson has been overwhelmingly shaped by James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, published in 1791, the most famous biography in the English language. But invaluable as Boswell is as a source, he should not be the last word. This new biography illuminates the Johnson that Boswell never knew: the awkward youth, the unsuccessful schoolmaster, the eccentric marriage, his early years in London in the 1740s scratching a living, the epic struggle to produce the Dictionary. Very much the outsider, rather than the supremely confident dispenser of robust common sense. Using material unknown to previous biographers, Peter Martin describes the psychological knife-edge on which Johnson felt he lived, caused by his severe melancholia and his physical diseases. He explores Johnson's role in the publishing and printing world of the time and he reveals how important women were to Johnson throughout his life. The Samuel Johnson that emerges from this enthralling biography is still the foremost figure of his age but a more rebellious, unpredictable and sympathetic figure than the one that Boswell so memorably portrayed.

The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate

The History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate PDF Author: Samuel Johnson
Publisher: CSS Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description
First published in 1921, and cited on the Africa's Best 100 Books List, this is a standard work on the history of theYorubas from the earliest times to the beginning of the British Protectorate. The first part of the book discusses the people, theircountry and language, religion, government, land law, manners and customs. The second part is divided into four periods, dealing first with mytheological kings and deified heroes; with the growth, prosperity and oppression of the Yoruba people; the time of revolutionary wars and disruption; and, finally, the arrest of disintegration, inter-tribal wars, and the coming of the British. There are two appendices, on dealing with treaties and agreements, the other giving tables of Yoruba kings, rulers, and chiefs. The book also includes an index and map of the Yoruba country.

Samuel Johnson: An Analysis

Samuel Johnson: An Analysis PDF Author: Charles H. Hinnant
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349192082
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
In this provocative and incisive book the author re-examines Samuel Johnson's major texts, focusing on his famous review of Soame Jenyns's A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil as a principal source of insight and innovation. He offers a lucid exposition of its ideas and methods, defining for the first time its relation to an important strand in eighteenth-century intellectual history, and assessing its implications for Johnson's moral vision. Hinnant's book will be an indispensable guide for anyone interested in understanding what is most modern in Johnson's thought and writings.

History of Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson

History of Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson PDF Author: Samuel Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description


Great Tales from English History

Great Tales from English History PDF Author: Robert Lacey
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0759511616
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
With insight, humor and fascinating detail, Lacey brings brilliantly to life the stories that made England -- from Ethelred the Unready to Richard the Lionheart, the Venerable Bede to Piers the Ploughman. The greatest historians are vivid storytellers, Robert Lacey reminds us, and in Great Tales from English History, he proves his place among them, illuminating in unforgettable detail the characters and events that shaped a nation. In this volume, Lacey limns the most important period in England's past, highlighting the spread of the English language, the rejection of both a religion and a traditional view of kingly authority, and an unstoppable movement toward intellectual and political freedom from 1387 to 1689. Opening with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and culminating in William and Mary's "Glorious Revolution," Lacey revisits some of the truly classic stories of English history: the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V's skilled archers defeated a French army three times as large; the tragic tale of the two young princes locked in the Tower of London (and almost certainly murdered) by their usurping uncle, Richard III; Henry VIII's schismatic divorce, not just from his wife but from the authority of the Catholic Church; "Bloody Mary" and the burning of religious dissidents; Sir Francis Drake's dramatic, if questionable, part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; and the terrible and transformative Great Fire of London, to name but a few. Here Anglophiles will find their favorite English kings and queens, villains and victims, authors and architects - from Richard II to Anne Boleyn, the Virgin Queen to Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Pepys to Christopher Wren, and many more. Continuing the "eminently readable, highly enjoyable" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) history he began in volume I of Great Tales from English History, Robert Lacey has drawn on the most up-to-date research to present a taut and riveting narrative, breathing life into the most pivotal characters and exciting landmarks in England's history.

Samuel Johnson in Historical Context

Samuel Johnson in Historical Context PDF Author: J. Clark
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230522696
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
In one of the more sudden shifts of perspective, and hotly contested controversies of recent historical and literary scholarship, our view of Johnson has been fundamentally changed. This volume offers the best up-to-the-moment account of what has been achieved, and points to the new directions in which scholarship is developing. It will be essential reading for all concerned with eighteenth-century studies.

Abyssinia's Samuel Johnson

Abyssinia's Samuel Johnson PDF Author: Wendy Laura Belcher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019979331X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Uncovers African influences on the Western imagination during the eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the ways Ethiopia inspired and shaped the work of Samuel Johnson.

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson PDF Author: W. Jackson Bate
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1582435243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Samuel Johnson is a writer of such significance that his era — the second half of the 18th century — is known as the Age of Johnson. Starting out as a Grub Street journalist, he made his mark on history as a poet, author, moralist, literary critic, political commentator, and lexiconographer. We, as moderns, need to know this man, and W. Jackson Bate's formidable biography, with its uncanny depth and empathy, is the book that makes that happen. Professor W. Jackson Bate is a lyrical writer who deftly explains the effect Johnson has had on scholars, critics, and readers of all kinds through the past 200 years: "The reason Johnson has always fascinated so many people of different kinds," Bate writes, "is not simply that [he] is so vividly picturesque and quotable . . . The deeper secret of his hypnotic attraction, especially during our own generation, lies in the immense reassurance he gives to human nature." Bate delves deep into the character that formed Johnson's intellect and fueled his prodigious contribution to literature, religion, politics, and our understanding of the nature of humankind, revealing the fascinating nature — both odd and adored — of this literary luminary.

Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.

Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. PDF Author: Samuel Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description