Books by Samuel Johnson

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell.

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell.

'I am engaged to write little Lives, and little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets.' So wrote Samuel Johnson to James Boswell.

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell spent the autumn of 1773 touring through the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland as far west as the islands of Skye, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Inchkenneth and Iona. Here, they paint a picture of a society which was still almost unknown to the Europe of the Enlightenment.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Volume 9 contains various critical pieces, essays on philosophical matters, and papers about the Dictionary and his edition of Shakespeare.

In Johnson's own day he was best known as an essayist, critic, and lexicographer. At the center of this collection are the periodical essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler. Together, these works-allied in their literary, social, and moral concerns-are the ones that continue to speak urgently to readers today.

Samuel Johnson (1846-1901) was an Anglican minister and historian renowned for his magisterial history of the Yoruba people. This volume, first published in 1921 by his brother, Dr Obadiah Johnson, contains Johnson's pioneering history of the Yoruba people which remains the standard reference for Yoruba history.

Part of a five-volume work which covers Johnson's lifetime correspondence. This volume chronicles the last three years of his life, a period of protracted struggle against a variety of ailments and of commitment to preserve a sound mind in an unsound body.

This edition offers numerous letters transcribed for the first time from the original documents - a statistic of special importance in the case of Johnson's letters to Hester Thrale, many of which have only been known in expurgated form. This volume contains letters written in the years 1777-1781.

This edition offers numerous letters transcribed for the first time from the original documents - a statistic of special importance in the case of Johnson's letters to Hester Thrale, many of which have only been known in expurgated form. The volumes covers letters written in the years 1731-1772.

A collection of Johnson's letters. Including over fifty letters or parts of letters, scores of texts, and illuminating annotation, this literary event aims to deepen our understanding of Samuel Johnson, man of letters.

Rasselas and his companions leave the 'happy valley' in search of 'the choice of life'. Johnson's philosophical tale considers such things as the nature of poetry, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and the pursuit of happiness. This new edition relates the novel to Johnson's life and the political and social context.

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Johnson's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by essays, criticism, and fiction - to give the essence of his work and thinking.

The Lives of the Poets is one of the greatest works of English criticism, but also one of the most diverting. This is the only one-volume paperback edition to make available Johnson's most substantial Lives in unabridged form. Texts are drawn from Roger Lonsdale's authoritative complete edition, and introduced by John Mullan.

The eighteenth century produced a remarkable array of thinkers whose influence in the development of free societies and free institutions is incalculable. Among these thinkers were Mandeville, Hutcheson, Smith, Hume, and Burke. And their time is known as the Age of Johnson. Samuel Johnson: Political Writings contains twenty-four of Johnson''s essays on the great social, economic, and political issues of his time. These include ''Taxation No Tyranny'' -- in which Johnson defended the British Crown against the American revolutionaries -- and ''An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain'', ''Thoughts on the Coronation of King George III'', and ''The Patriot'', which is one of Johnson''s principal writings during the American Revolution.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, published in 1755, marked a milestone in a language in desperate need of standards. No English dictionary before it had devoted so much space to everyday words, been so thorough in its definitions, or illustrated usage by quoting from Shakespeare and other great writers. Johnson's was the dictionary used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Wordsworth and Coleridge, the Bront s and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. This new edition, edited by David Crystal, will contain a selection from the original, offering memorable passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics.

When James Boswell persuaded Samuel Johnson to embark on a tour of Boswell's native Scotland in 1773, the adventure resulted in two magnificent books, Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell'sJournal of a Tour to the Hebrides.

This edition makes available for the first time the largest collection of unpublished material by the great eighteenth-century writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson in existence. Johnson's corrections and amendments to his Dictionary, constituting a revision never printed, are reproduced here in facsimile, with a transcription, an extensive commentary and notes.

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, leaves the easy life of the Happy Valley, accompanied by his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah, and the much-travelled philosopher Imlac. Their journey takes them to Egypt, where they study the various conditions of men's lives, before returning home in a 'conclusion in which nothing is concluded'. Johnson's tale is not only a satire on optimism, but also an expression of truth about the human mind and its infinite capacity for hope.