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This new introduction to the Life of Johnson discusses the main structural, dramatic, historical, and imaginative aspects of the work, and establishes its intellectual and social contexts. Professor Clingham offers a new account of the Life based upon a reassessment of the nature of biography, of Boswell’s style and thought, and of Johnson’s own works. As he examines the Life’s complex psychological, emotional, and artistic facets, a fresh picture of Boswell as biographer emerges.

“This is a fine and judicious critical book honoring Boswell’s extraordinary candor and descriptive power as they should be honored, while at the same time acknowledging his severe limitations, including his limitations as a critic of Johnson’s work.”

Susan Staves in SEL

“Greg Clingham has presented a thoughtful reading of the Life…. His thinking is provocative and his scholarship impressive.”

Thomas E. Kinsella in The Age of Johnson