John Wain condenced 17 volumes of autobiography into this taught, energetic, flowing narrative. I was captivated!

James Boswell has been called everything from an engaging gentleman to a vicious scoundrel. A true man of his times, Boswell combined naivete with crudity, tenderness with violence, courtesy with thoughtlessness, enthusiasm with snobbery, true religious feeling with wanton depravity.

But how can so many contradictory traits exist alongside each other in the same man? And how does that man see himself? This selection of Boswell's journals attempts to answer that question. Editor John Wain tells Boswell's story in Boswell's words, through excerpts from his journals, letters, legal pleadings, and published writings. We learn about his love life (in some detail), his marriage, his career, his impossible relationship with his domineering Whig father, and his emotional struggles in writing the _Life of Johnson_. We also get a concrete feeling for Boswell's emotional instability, his sense that he would never be good enough for his father (and he was right, unfortunately), and his tremendous guilt over his infidelity.

This book is an excellent introduction to James Boswell. I definitely recommend it.

Tired of all those solemn "memoirs" and "remembrances" that are on the library shelves? Well, this one will knock your socks off!
If Boswell were alive today and using videotape instead of a quill pen, the talk shows would have him as their constant guest.

I'm not sure if I'd want to have known him, but this lecher, alcoholic, and moocher had a keen eye for London high- and low-life that will keep you hanging on every page.

To anyone who, like myself, has found a real and deep enjoyment in reading the Life of Johnson, I can only recommend Boswell's own diaries. The first volume - his 'London Journal' starting in the year he met Johnson - is pure delight. Boswell always saw himself as a character acting in the drama of life, and he could be almost excruciatingly honest and objective about himself. His voluminous diaries record all the trivia, triumphs, and despairs of his own life, day by day and year by year.

My own opinion is that Boswell is a far better diarist than Pepys, though not nearly as well known in this respect. There is a fascination about seeing his whole life recorded from youth to shortly before his death, with all the same force and liveliness that went into his Life of Johnson. His inner life is at least as entertaining as his outer life. He seems totally determined to write about himself as he wrote about Johnson - warts and all.

It's this courage and honesty about himself that makes us respect Boswell even when he is at his most foolish or debauched. The diaries make it extremely clear that he was no idiot, and that the Life of Johnson was no fortuitous masterpiece. From his diaries he comes across as a deeply sensitive, romantic, self-conscious man. Charming, likeable, and often playing the clown to his acquaintances; but often filled with self-doubt, frustration, insecurity, and a deep depression that he concealed from all except his closest friends.

We see Boswell puffed up with vanity at some silly social success, and the same Boswell quietly devoting large amounts of time and money that he could ill spare to helping people in trouble. We see Boswell in love again and again with totally unsuitable women, and eventually marrying the cousin who had always been a good, close friend rather than an object of wild romance. We see Boswell in his vibrant youth, and his tragic final years, as an alcoholic filled with bitter shame and despair, yet unable to reform.

His diaries are certainly one of the great undiscovered treasures of literature. They deserve to be a lot better known than they are.

It has been quite awhile since I have read this book but and can remember few details. What sticks in the mind is the complete humanity displayed by its author. Frankly, Boswell is unlikable and hardly to be admired but his passion and candidness make this book very readable today. Not many tomes from this era can make this claim. It is a must read for both those interested in Johnson and those students of the human condition.

From the first chapter of The Sower's Seeds, I found myself engulfed in the lives of these three children, Hurricane, Indy, and Enola Gay. Through their trials and tribulations, I found myself longing for the sense of family and community that surrounds this story.

Having moved to a large Metropolitan area as a child, I never thought I'd miss the quiet community life. Now I know that I was wrong.

Boswell attempts to expand the reader's mind with alternative ways of thinking--about life, religion, and inner peace.

A wonderful read! I couldn't put it down!

Boswell captures the essence of life in a small town as he tells the story of three siblings separated by a tragic accident and brought together as they grow older. It shows that life is a continuous learning experience, and that the tragedies of life allow us to better understand our character and evolve.

I particularly enjoyed the spiritual aspect of this novel. It is a very engaging story and I highly recommend it!

The Sower's Seeds is a magnificent read!!! At first I thought Boswell's novel was going to end up becoming a mindless mystery story about a murder of a mother of three children in Indiana. Much to my surprise--The Sower's Seeds was much, much more. With extremely interesting characters: Hurricane, Indy, and Enola Gay, Boswell weaves a tale with mystical, spiritual overtones, while keeping the story line simple and fundamentally American in tone.
Advice to the potential reader: don't be surprised if you find yourself re-reading this novel after you're done with it the first time. It is that good!

On the positive side, this is a well-written and well-researched book. It's a good, clear account of the writing of Boswell's Life of Johnson. However, it has no new facts or insights, and it doesn't achieve the author's stated aims.

Most of it is merely a summary of Boswell's journals, particularly while he was writing the Life. It's a good summary, with some background information and some clarification of points that may be unfamiliar to the modern reader. However, Sisman usually just repeats Boswell's own descriptions of his thoughts, feelings, and actions, and presents them to the reader (chapter after chapter) with little or no comment.

In the introduction Sisman raises many interesting questions, such as the extent to which Boswell 'invented' Johnson, and the nature of biography and its limits. Unfortunately, he doesn't provide any answers, or even any real discussion.

There are some strange omissions. He rightly states that Boswell polished up and 'improved' Johnson's conversations, a fact which is obvious to anyone who has compared the relevant passages in the Life and in the Journals. But even though this issue is crucial to understanding the writing of the Life, he not only fails to discuss it, but even fails to show a single example of such polishing.

Sisman states in the introduction that "I have attempted to deconstruct the Life of Johnson". However, this 'deconstruction' seems to be limited to remarking that, in the Life, we see Johnson through Boswell's eyes, and that Boswell tended to emphasize things that mattered to him personally. These are truisms that hardly need stating, and he takes these points no further.

I can't help thinking that the introduction contains intentionally misleading hype, intended for lazy reviewers. It's like fancy icing added to a dry cake. People who only read the introduction and then rapidly skim and sample the rest of the book could easily get the impression that it's more profound than it really is. A thorough reading shows that the author makes no real attempt to address the issues that he says he does.

There is some liveliness and interest in Sisman's book, but it is just a little of the light of Boswell's journals filtering through. If you are looking for a summary of Boswell's later life and the contents of his journals at this period, this book may be useful, but overall I would say that although Boswell succeeded in his 'presumptuous task', Sisman didn't succeed in his.

_Life[17~ of Johnson_ by James Boswell has, since its publication in
1791, been one of the world's favorite books. Now Adam Sisman has
biographied that great biography, in _Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The
Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), a
grand book for anyone who loves the original one, or Boswell, or
Johnson. It is also a capital demonstration of the artistry involved
in writing nonfiction.

Boswell had a stern father who had contempt for
his son, and so he searched for father figures. It was this role that
Johnson inevitably played, and while others were disgusted by
Boswell's sycophancy, it mere ensured that Boswell could get his
subject to discourse, and could take it all down in his ever-present
journal. Sisman shows how Boswell used his voluminous journals to put
himself into the scene, even when he was not really there. Anecdotes
from friends and even Johnson's own writings were put into the
biography as if Boswell were really there, and that Boswell edited the
conversations to his liking. A skilled mimic, Boswell could turn
stories about Johnson in a way that made them true to life. Scholars
have counted up the calendars of the two men and found that they met
only on 400 days of the last 22 years of Johnson's life, so Boswell
really did not play the role of constant companion. Even more
interesting is what Boswell left out, Johnson's sexual
activities. Uxoriousness and unrelieved grief of the widower were
truer to Boswell's purpose, if not to Johnson's character. In
addition, painting his friend in this way may have assuaged Boswell's
guilt over his many infidelities to his own wife. Sisman also shows
how untiringly Boswell sought details from others, and confirmed them,
in order to write them up himself.

Boswell had a magnificent and
useful friendship with Johnson, who inspired him and provided him with
the immortality he sought (although, sadly, Boswell could not have
known this). The friendship was a foundation of his life, and forms
the basis of one of the most entertaining of the great books. It
wasn't always a smooth friendship, as Johnson was always
intermittently rough with his friends. His famous remark to Boswell,
"You have but two topics, yourself and me, and I'm sick of
both," shows that he grew impatient at being prodded into
self-revelation. But we only know of that remark because Boswell, all
thanks be to him, recorded it for future use and kept it as one of the
details in his incomparable book.

Before Boswell, biography was like a formal portrait, a flattering way to honor the subject. Today, biography is more likely to be critical than to be positive. All of this has happened in less than 220 years. How was the line originally breached? That's the key element of this rewarding "biography of a biographer doing a biography." In fact, this book's perspective on Boswell's task has itself has now broken new ground. Where will this new view take us 220 years hence?

This book will probably only be a three or four star effort for those who have not yet read (or cannot remember much about) James Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. If you think you are interested in this book's subject, go read or reread the biography first unless it is very clear in your mind. Otherwise, many of the juiciest bits of this book will not connect as well for you.

Before reading the Life of Dr. Johnson, I could not make any sense of why Boswell had written the book. Surely an attorney had something better to do than to follow another man around, taking verbatim notes of his conversations. After seeing the biography, I realized that the relationship was in many ways like that of the fictional Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and novels. Boswell adored Johnson, as did most people. But it still wasn't clear what all his motivations were, aside from adoration. This book is very helpful in that regard. I had never invested the time in reading a biography of Boswell, so many of these details about the time after Johnson died were new to me.

The core of the book deals with the issue of great men having their downsides. I often am shocked by how often it seems that the greater the genius, the worse the person is in his or her private life. It is as though the genius withdraws them from all else, and gives them psychological license to break the rules of ordinary mortals. The Prometheus myth comes to mind as a parallel.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was no exception, although certainly not as weak in many ways as other "great men" have been. In biography terms, what was exceptional was that Boswell recorded and reported much of the flaws he encountered.

What this book reveals that was new to me (and possibly to you) is what Boswell did not include in the biography. Now, that part of this book was even more interesting that what I had read in the biography.

This point was even more striking to me because Boswell seemed to be a classic case of a man who lacked emotional intelligence. He was surprised when he offended people, and that some were stricken to the quick by what he had written. This occurred despite having had these experiences over and over again. But even Boswell had some scruples.

You will probably also be interested to learn about what the Boswell notes and journals have shown about Boswell's writing process. Boswell's notes were not actually stenographic records. They were fragments and general references to jog his memory about what had been said and what had happened. Boswell did not write in the journal every day, and so the journal is more like new writing than summarization. So we should give Boswell more credit for what we like about The Life of Dr. Johnson.

I enjoyed the comparisons to the other biographies and collections of letters that were published at about the same time. Boswell's accomplishment seems all the greater in that context.

Boswell himself is someone who goes down in my esteem from this book as a person, while up as a researcher and as a writer. In a sense, this "biography of a biographer writing a biography" has done to him what he did to Samuel Johnson. That seems apt.

I disagreed with the book's final point. The author says "never again will there be such a combination of subject, author, and opportunity" as coincided to create Boswell's biography of Sanuel Johnson. What do you think?

After you finish this wonderful and interesting book, I suggest that you think about great people you have met. Have you created notes about your contacts with them? Have you written up anything from those notes? Have you published any writing about them? If not, perhaps you should. What will you include . . . and omit?

Presume to share what is important for all humanity to know!

Typically, I have a bias against abridged editions of literary works. Nevertheless, prudent editing and abridgement enhances the casual reader's appreciation of this literary tome. Undergraduates working a required reading list for English Lit classes are on their own. Anyway, Samuel Johnson was a noted author and editor of the 18th century English literary scene. Instead of an exhaustive study of Johnson's life as author and editor, biographer Boswell compiled a series of anecdotes, quotations, and correspondence that is held together by his friendship with Johnson. Boswell's purpose was to capture the essence of the man. Johnson was adept at articulating pithy remarks with surgical precision. For example, "...a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprized to find it done at all." The 18th century spellings, etc. remain intact. We have Johnson to thank for the familiar "...hell is paved with good intentions," and "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Boswell takes care to portray Johnson as sexually moral. After the death of his wife, Johnson (according to Boswell) was apparently celibate. Johnson rebuffed "women of the town," and said he wasn't interested in their carnal delights. Johnson told David Garrick, the actor, that he would not go backstage at the theater because "the white bubbies and silk stockings of your Actresses excite my genitals." As an interesting aside, the editor's introduction speculates that Johnson's relationship with the widow Thrale may have been sexual, with bondage overtones. Who knows? The description of London coffeehouses, theaters, and gathering places are heavy with 18th century atmosphere. Bottom line, reading this book is interesting as a curiosity. Its relevance for 21st century readers may seem limited, but don't let that stop you from sampling the fare. ;-)

Needless to say, Boswell's LIFE OF JOHNSON is one of the preeminent works of biography and should be read by anyone interested in Johnson or the genre. It is a great book (also great is W. Jackson Bate's SAMUEL JOHNSON [1st published 1975]which is a MUST for anyone interested in Johnson). But although I love the Everyman's Library, I do not recommend this edition of Boswell. Unlike the usual quality of the Everyman's Library, its Boswell is rife with typographical errors (there's even missing text!). Though it's the only edition of Boswell I've read, I regret that a correct edition is not on my bookshelf. That being said, if this is the only affordable hardcover version you can find -- and you buy only hardcovers -- go ahead and purchase the Everyman's despite the numerous and distracting errors.

I chose the 1,000 or so page Wordsworth Classics paperback edition of The Life Of Johnson (ISBN 1 85326 797 x) and was very pleased I did. The book had a nice heft to it, and the print was large enough for a comfortable read. My only major beef with this edition is that Boswell's text is replete with quotations from a variety of languages including Latin, Greek, French, Italian and others, and very few of them are translated into English. Whether the editor assumed that the average modern reader is a polyglot, or was unable to provide the translations for some other reason, I feel deprived at not having had access to this portion of the book's material, particularly as the quotes are most often used to gild the lily of one of Johnson's witticisms. Nevertheless, the book rewards the diligent reader with a wealth of intellectual stimulation, and offers a fascinating look into the England of the period including: polite London society, Oxford University, and jaunts around the British and Scottish countryside. Johnson's somewhat eccentric life and personal habits are lovingly and affectionately relayed by his close friend Boswell, who somehow managed to preserve a vast amount of Johnson's conversation without the aid of a tape recorder. With everyday life as a backdrop, we see how Johnson, a self-described lazy man, managed to produce such an abundant literary legacy, not the least of which was his groundbreaking dictionary. I recommend this book highly to people with an interest in 18th century England, the literary society of the period, or who simply love a great biography.

Boswell persuaded Johnson, almost age 64, to visit the highlands of Scotland with him in August, 1773. Both Boswell and Johnson wrote small books about it. Johnson's view, both in his letters to Hester Thrale and in this book, was as a social scientist cum historian, taking a clinical examination of the changes that were occurring in Scotland after the Union. Where Boswell's volume (sometimes paired with Johnson's) tends to focus on dialogs with Johnson, Johnson discusses the decaying of the clan structure, emigration, assimilation into the Union... Johnson is very careful as he describes what he sees, carefully measuring distances and relating his observations to historical context.

This review may appear with other editions, but the Oxford edition, edited by Fleeman, is a very thorough and detailed edition for the specialist. For the specialist, it's worth the relatively high price. Fleeman provides detailed notes, and appendices on the the various early editions, cancelled sheets, clans structures, etc. If you are a serious reader of Johnson, as I am, this is the edition to have.

If you are -not- a serious reader, then you would do well to buy the penguin paperback, which combines Johnson's and Boswell's volumes. The two books are fascinating to read in tandem, and it's revealing about Boswell that Johnson doesn't even mention conversations which meant so much to Boswell. In addition, the notes in the Penguin edition (by Peter Levi) are also very helpful.

The -third- part of the story, however -- Johnson's letters to Hester Thrale while J & B were traveling -- are not included in any current edition that I know of. I suspect we will have to wait for an electronic version in order to be able to compare all three resources at once.

This book was my companion on my first trip to Norway, the origin in viking times of the settlement of much of Northern Scotland and the Hebrides. I was curious to know how the region looked in earlier times and, is always the case with the writing of Johnson and Boswell, was happily entertained. If one reads only one travel book then maybe this one is the right one--maybe Lawrence's 'Travels in Italy' is second on my list.

Quite a while back I posted a review of the Oxford edition of Samuel Johnson's writings in which I included a short review of the Penguin edition of the Sctoland journey/journal. Reposting that review to the newest edition of the Oxford book, it occurred to me I ought to place this review where it belongs.

There is little with which one might compare these two wonderful pieces of writing today -- and yet to some extent they are, each in its own way, foundations upon which much of modern writing has been built. Johnson is here, if not at his finest, still nearing an apogee of clarity, lucidity and intellectual rigor. Boswell is making his initial foray into the published first-hand journal, written only half-a-thought out of the public eye, that would eventually lead him to write his enormous and enormously popular Life of Johnson.

Reading the two interlaced is an utter delight -- moving from the formality, grace and power of Johnson to the smaller, more intimate pleasures of Boswell gives one the feeling of having captured, in the adventurous peregrinations of these two inimitable characters, the very breadth and depth of eighteenth century English writing. (I must point out that the Penguin book does not print the two Journals in interlaced fashion, but with a little effort the reader can move between the two so as to get the efect of Johnson and Boswell speaking in turns on the same topology, if not always the same topic...)

To love and admire Johnson, but not appreciate the brilliant, even if much different, stylistic inventions of Boswell seems to me somewhat perverse. Certainly Boswell had his shortcomings, but half the joy of reading and 'knowing' Johnson and his circle comes from appreciating the little peccadilloes and foibles that each displayed in his turn--not the least the Great Cham, Johnson, himself. Having said that I hope I may be allowed one short comment on Frank Lynch's review below. While meaning no disrespect to Frank it seems odd to me that he would note that Johnson does not comment on conversations that Boswell took as very important. Johnson knew of Boswell's journals as they were being written and encouraged Boswell to publish them. Moreover, Johnson was writing a topographical piece and not the more intimate "Travels with the Great Cham" journal that Boswell was writing.

In the long run, that Boswell found these conversations important is what delights us -- his ability to possess and bring weight to the smallness of life contrasts wonderfully with Johnson's ability to enlarge and ennoble life -- and the reflection is an interesting one when we find some of the Great Cham's noble thoughts somewhat bitterly missing the mark while Boswell's little thoughts can roll about one's mind for a very long time.

I cannot think of either of these two men that I don't see Thomas Rowlandson's wonderful caricature of the two walking arm in arm -- the older man a head taller, wagging his finger and pontificating casually and brilliantly on some weighty matter, and the other rolling along beside him smiling with sweet admiration and pride of association. To read Johnson and bypass Boswell, is to find one great treasure and forsake another.

If I must add one small quibble it is that the notes to the Penguin edition seem rather eccentric -- more the product of a dyspeptic travel writer than a Johnsonian scholar.

Dr. Martin writes with unabashed affection about his subject, making for lively, energetic reading. This book pours life into a literary figure who, in less caring hands, could have been made out to be dead dull.

Anyone who has read and been fascinated with Boswell's Life of Johnson will do well to read this book.Peter Martin has done a bang-up job of bringing Boswell to life, extensively quoting from his journals and letters, narrating the stories of his Grand Tour,the meetings with Rousseau and Voltaire,and his friendships with the likes of Burke, Reynolds,Goldsmith,Garrick,and of course,Johnson. Boswell's "hypochondria",or chronic depression, is a main topic,and we see how it affected his marriage,his friendships,and his writings.A must read for all Johnsonians and anglophiles.

James Boswell's "Life of Johnson" is commonly regarded as the finest biography in the English language. For 155 years after his death, Boswell was known primarily for this great work. But then in 1949 through 1951, in a series of three separate discoveries, Boswell's journal was found. Boswell is now also regarded as one of history's best diarists. Boswell was a libertine and at times a heavy drinker who, no matter how inebriated he became at the London Literary Club, where he listened to Garrick, Goldsmith, Burke, Reynolds and other brilliant men discuss the topics of the day, would race home to enter their conversation in his journal. So he preserved much of Samuel Johnson's wit ("Fishing: a stick and a string, a fish on one end and a fool on the other.") and philosophy. Peter Martin concludes that Boswell's journal is the best reading that exists regarding London in the late 1700s. Martin's book is an exhaustively researched and beautifully written account of an eccentric, gifted man.

James Boswell wrote what is considered by many to be the greatest biography ever written. He does do an excellent job of describing to the reader what kind of person Samuel Johnson was, as he makes an artfully vivid portrait of his subject. However, it is unfortunately better art than history. It is factually inaccurate, painfully repetitive, and leaves the reader with little understanding of why Samuel Johnson was an important man at all.

The only review for this book ('a reader from Kansas City') is somewhat misguided and perhaps refers to the Life of Johnson in general.

Professor Waingrow's volume (1 of a projected 4) of the Original Manuscript of James Boswell's Life of Johnson is an invaluable work of scholarship which should stimulate Boswellian and Johnsonian studies for generations to come.

The reader is able to trace, though Waingrow's thorough and careful annotations, changes made to the text by Boswell throughout all stages of composition. Much is explained through detailed footnotes and there is a full introduction which explains Prof. Waingrow's own method of annotation and includes some speculation concerning the interest of the manuscript edition for scholars.

The work is designed as a companion to the Hill-Powell edition of the Life of Johnson; each page is provided with the corresponding number in their edition.

It thus holds much for those interested in the study of Boswell's methodology, but all Johnsonian scholars and those interested in the tradition of biographical writing will benefit from this work.

In its time I'm sure that Boswell saw the commercial advantage (and likely popularity) of publishing a journal of his travels in Scotland with England's preeminent genius. Sort of like some little known writer taking Stephen Hawking to Tierra del Fuego. But with the passage of time, it is Boswell overshadowing Johnson that makes this book worth reading. The prose is crisp and mercifully unaffected by the stylistic impenetrability of Johnson's writings. One can see the journal as a travel book, but it is more akin to an 18th century version of William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". There is an argument to be made that Boswell's prose has had greater impact on the english language than the entire Johnson canon. Worthwhile.

I've never been a fan of Samuel Johnson. The greater writer and more interesting character, to my mind, has always been Boswell. I don't doubt that Boswell had a sincere affection for the man, but I sometimes wonder if Boswell (perhaps subconsciously) duped Johnson into letting him write his biography as well as this account of their travels to show him up. Time and time again, Johnson shows himself to be, well, a curmudgeon, both in word and deed. From his comments on Hume, the great Scottish philosopher and historian, "I know not indeed whether he has first been a blockhead and that has made him a rogue, or first been a rogue and that has made him a blockhead." to his ordering Boswell back by his side when Boswell was just trying to ride ahead and prepare things for his arrival (all according to Boswell, of course), Boswell's Johnson does not come off very well. Though Boswell attests to his worship of the "Great Cham" again and again, one can't help wondering if there was a smirk on Boswell's face as he penned this journal of their travels...Surely, it had to have occurred to him that readers would come away with a snicker or two at his descriptions of what almost seems a straw man for Boswell's sharp pen. I, for one, am not convinced by his show of naive devotion to Johnson.-What then was Boswell trying to do? Make a name for himself, of course. And what better way than to associate himself indelibly with the man many considered the greatest literary figure of the time.-He was very successful in doing so, and his writings are now much more in demand by readers than anything written by Johnson, who, in turn, has turned out to be the "harmless drudge" he ironically defined himself as in the dictionary that made him famous. Finally, then, my verdict on the book is that it is passing weird.-Weird, in that the psychological interplay always just below the suface in Boswell's account of the journey leaves the reader in constant doubt throughout the book as to Boswell's true intent in writing his descriptions of Johnson.-Was Boswell smirking with a mercenary eye to the future of his own literary reputation, writing ludicrous descriptions of a man considered great at the time, all beneath a faux-naif bluster?-I, for one, am convinced that, at least subconsciously, he was.-But this is what, for me, makes the book so much more intriguing than your average day-in, day-out journal.-4 stars though because it's still a journal and makes for yawns at times.