Book contents
- The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
- The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Johnson’s Criticism and the Forms of Feeling
- Part II Critical Relations and the Art of Literary History
- Part III Johnson, Dramatic Poetry and Thinking
- Part IV Time, Truth and History
- Part V Editing Lives, and Life
- Chapter 9 Annotated Immortality
- Chapter 10 Arts of Structure and the Rhythm of the Lives
- Appendix Irony in Revolt: F. R. Leavis Reads Johnson
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 9 - Annotated Immortality
from Part V - Editing Lives, and Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2023
- The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
- The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Johnson’s Criticism and the Forms of Feeling
- Part II Critical Relations and the Art of Literary History
- Part III Johnson, Dramatic Poetry and Thinking
- Part IV Time, Truth and History
- Part V Editing Lives, and Life
- Chapter 9 Annotated Immortality
- Chapter 10 Arts of Structure and the Rhythm of the Lives
- Appendix Irony in Revolt: F. R. Leavis Reads Johnson
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This penultimate chapter introduces two complete editions of the Lives. The first was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press and the second in 2010 by Yale. The value of these editions is the attention they bring to the textual details of Johnson’s critical writing; they promote accuracy in dealing with his terminology. Evaluating Johnson’s criteria depends on such detail. The editions invite us to look more closely at the implicit meanings within the overall structure. They are of course very different and suggest different editorial cultures. The Oxford is very ample in its commentary; the Yale annotation is leaner and conforms in editorial style to the Works to which it belongs. Different users will find merits in both approaches, and a final preference is difficult to determine given the different ways in which Johnson’s critical and biographical writings are read or used. But both editions, in their ambition and magnitude, suggest the persistent presence of Johnson’s critical writing and are crucial to its reception.
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- Information
- The Literary Criticism of Samuel JohnsonForms of Artistry and Thought, pp. 159 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023