Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... London journal, 1762-1763 (original 1950; edition 1950)by James Boswell, Frederick Albert Pottle (Editor), Christopher Morley (Foreword)
Work InformationBoswell's London Journal 1762-1763 by James Boswell (1950)
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Boswell was the complete "young man about town" during his year in London. The journal seems honest enough (although the editor's wonderful notes refer to episodes which have been glossed over). Boswell presents himself as a determined individual who won't give up in pursuing his dream of joining a Guard's Regiment based in London. He is fearless in his repeated requests to those with influence in government that they persist in his petition to join up - and, of course it must be a London based outfit that won't be posted overseas. He's honest too about his need for sex - the Louisa (aka Mrs. Lewis) episode reveals him as a cad after he is unwontedly visited by "Signor Gonorrhoea". "What! thought I , can this beautiful, this sensible and this agreeable woman be so sadly defiled? Can corruption lodge beneath so fair a form?.... No, it is impossible. I have just got a gleet by irritating the parts too much with excessive venery." Wonderful Eighteenth Century!! Go the Boss. Glorious stuff if you're into the 18th century, probably quite impenetrable if not, though Boswell is surely one of the greatest characters in literary history. Here we have him in all his youthful folly, living through what Sheridan quotes Fielding calling "a trifling age," (50), and doing a good deal of trifling himself. He flits between deep piety and evenings with prostitutes. He records: "I see too far into the system of things, to be much in earnest. I consider Mankind in general & therefore cannot take a part in their quarrels when divided into particular states and nations. I can see that after a war is over and a great quantity of cold & hunger & want of Sleep and torment endured by mortals, things are upon the whole, just as they were." He inquires into his own personality and realizes that "altho' the judgment may know that all is vanity, yet Passion may ardently pursue." "The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by whose who are whimsical." He suggests to a friend that the world would be much better is "venereal delight" were permitted only to the virtuous, because priests could then "incite the Audience to Goodness by warmly and lusciously setting before their imaginations the transports of amorous Joy." That is right. Boswell thinks all would be well if only priests were also pornographers. He fails to go out when his barber is sick, apparently being incapable of shaving himself. He sees another prostitute and describes her. He eats out. His friends are witty. And then he meets Jonson--which gives birth to a great book, of course. But after reading just the first volume of his journal, I'm pretty convinced that Boswell was both a more enjoyable man than Jonson, and, dare I say it, a vastly superior writer. I read this for a Samuel Johnson course in college, and it was my favorite reading of the course. Boswell is funny, lively, contradictory, adventuresome, flirtatious, remorseful, religious (and yes, misogynistic)--just as any 22-yr-old male embarked from home to the big city. Samuel Johnson was lucky to meet Boswell during the time covered by this journal. (And I was a lucky girl to have such a wonderful professor, Dr. Helen Louise McGuffie, noted Johnson scholar and generous soul, for the course.) no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesBelongs to Publisher SeriesIs abridged inDistinctionsNotable Lists
Boswell was the most charming companion in the world, and London becomes his dining room and his playground, his club and his confessional. No celebrant of the London world can ignore his book.'Peter Ackroyd, from the ForewordIn 1762 James Boswell, then twenty-two years old, left Edinburgh for London. The famous Journal he kept during the next nine months is an intimate account of his encounters with the high-life and the low-life in London. Frank and confessional as a personal portrait of the young Boswell, the Journal is also revealing as a vivid portrayal of life in eighteenth-century London. This new edition includes a Foreword by Peter Ackroyd, which discusses Boswell's life and achievement.Key FeaturesFeatures a new Foreword by Peter Ackroyd, author of London: The BiographyThis edition of Boswell's classic text has long been recognised as THE authoritative versionEdited by the renowned Boswell expert, the late Frederick A. PottleIncludes a first-class introduction and informative notes throughout No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)828.603Literature English English miscellaneous writings English miscellaneous writings 1745-1799LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
|
. ( )