Samuel Johnson James Boswell JOURNALS OF THE WESTERN ISLES Folio Society
roll over the image to zoom in
Samuel Johnson James Boswell JOURNALS OF THE WESTERN ISLES Folio Society
Folio edition, second printing slipcased hardback of JOURNALS OF THE WESTERN ISLES comprising A Journey to The Western Islands of Scotland by Samuel Johnson and The Journal of A Tour to The Hebrides by James Boswell. Edited with an introduction and notes by Peter Levi. Published by the Folio Society, London in 1991. A Journey to The Western Islands of Scotland was first published in 1775. Boswell's Journal of A Tour to The Hebrides with Samuel Johnson was first published in 1786. Colour portraits of authors' and 22 colour plates reproduced from aquatints in William Daniell's Voyage Round Great Britain.The book is in very good condition with only minor rubbing to a couple of corners (Decorated with an illustration of Arros Castle in black on green cloth boards and gilt lettering on brown leather label on the spine).The original brown slipcase is in very good condition with only minor wear. Internally, the pages are clean and tight and there are no tears and no inscriptions.
Samuel Johnson (1709 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems "London" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes", and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship."
This work brought Johnson popularity and success; until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read tale Rasselas. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their travels in A Journey to The Western Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
A Journey to The Western Islands of Scotland (1775) is a travel narrative by Samuel Johnson about an eighty-three day journey through Scotland, in particular the islands of the Hebrides, in the late summer and autumn of 1773. The sixty-three year-old Johnson was accompanied by his thirty-two year-old friend of many years James Boswell, who was also keeping a record of the trip, published in 1785 as Journal of A Tour to The Hebrides with Samuel Johnson. The two narratives are often published as a single volume, which is beneficial for comparing two perspectives of the same events, although they are very different in approach - Johnson focused on Scotland, and Boswell focused on Johnson. Boswell went on to write a famous biography of Johnson.
Scotland was still a relatively wild place in 1773. Marauding privateers and slave-ships worked the coasts (seven slavers were reported in 1774 alone). The destruction of Scottish forests was in full swing. The Scottish clan system had been dismantled by Act of Parliament, the population had been disarmed and wearing of the tartan was prohibited. Scotch whisky was distilled illegally and profusely (Johnson noted the custom of the skalk, or drinking whisky before breakfast). The rule of law was by no means properly established, and the power of the clan chieftains was curtailed but was often the only real authority.
Johnson and Boswell toured the Highlands and islands by carriage, on horseback and by boat, planning the stages of their journey to stay at the houses of the local gentry. They were astounded when they visited their colleague Lord Monboddo at Monboddo House and saw him in his primitive attire as a farmer, a quite different picture from his image as an urbane Edinburgh Court of Session jurist, philosopher and evolutionary thinker.
Book size: 8vo - over 5?" - 7?" tall. 412 pages with 24 colour illustrations.
ISBN: n/a
We use industry standard packaging
Items are sent promptly and well packed
Please do check our other listings
* Combined postage if more than one item is purchased
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
£0.00
£8.99
Earn24
reward points
reward points
Send this to a friend
Samuel Johnson James Boswell JOURNALS OF THE WESTERN ISLES Folio Society
