Samuel Johnson: A Life
Encyclopedia
Samuel Johnson: A Life is a prize-winning biography of 18th century English lexicographer Samuel Johnson
by British literary critic David Nokes
. It was published on October 27, 2009, shortly before the author's death. Building on earlier work by scholars Robert DeMaria, Walter Jackson Bate
, Lawrence Lipking and Peter Martin, many critics lauded Samuel Johnson: A Life as a significant step forward in Johnsonian biography and criticism. In the biography, Nokes challenges James Boswell
's significance in Dr. Johnson's life, writing that "Johnson wished to keep...his acknowledged biographer at a distance" and even second-guessed his "annointment" of Boswell as his official biographer.
hailed Nokes's account of Johnson's life as significant for capturing "the critic as a Londoner, almost the archetypal citizen of that endless city." Jacob Appel
praised the book for its "ability to convey the degree to which the intellectual life of eighteenth-century London arose from the overlapping and entangled lives of its participants."
Professor Nokes's obituary in The Times
noted: His technique as a biographer was often to highlight the psychological aspects of his subjects’ life which may have been hidden in their public lives but which left their mark on their writings...Nokes was one of the few scholars to face head-on the possibility that Johnson married his wife Tetty for her money, remarking at a recent conference that Johnson was poor and ugly and so Tetty was an opportunity that he could not pass up.
However, the volume was not without its critics. Freya Johnston, writing in the Literary Review
, observed of the biography: "David Nokes offers no fresh critical interpretations of Johnson; he treats Rasselas, a vigorous, bleak and witty road novel, as a problematic repository of its author's 'obsessions'. Given Johnson's hope that biography might instruct and appeal to everyone, it seems a pity to identify his works as - above all else - symptoms of an odd sensibility: it makes them less invitingly applicable to the rest of us."
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
by British literary critic David Nokes
David Nokes
David Nokes FRSL was a scholar of 18th century English literature known for his biographies of Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Jane Austen and Samuel Johnson. He also penned screenplays, including a BBC adaptation of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa and an adaptation of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of...
. It was published on October 27, 2009, shortly before the author's death. Building on earlier work by scholars Robert DeMaria, Walter Jackson Bate
Walter Jackson Bate
Walter Jackson Bate was an American literary critic and biographer. He was born in Mankato, Minnesota.He is known for two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies, of John Keats and Samuel Johnson...
, Lawrence Lipking and Peter Martin, many critics lauded Samuel Johnson: A Life as a significant step forward in Johnsonian biography and criticism. In the biography, Nokes challenges James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
's significance in Dr. Johnson's life, writing that "Johnson wished to keep...his acknowledged biographer at a distance" and even second-guessed his "annointment" of Boswell as his official biographer.
Reception
Harold BloomHarold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
hailed Nokes's account of Johnson's life as significant for capturing "the critic as a Londoner, almost the archetypal citizen of that endless city." Jacob Appel
Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
praised the book for its "ability to convey the degree to which the intellectual life of eighteenth-century London arose from the overlapping and entangled lives of its participants."
Professor Nokes's obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noted: His technique as a biographer was often to highlight the psychological aspects of his subjects’ life which may have been hidden in their public lives but which left their mark on their writings...Nokes was one of the few scholars to face head-on the possibility that Johnson married his wife Tetty for her money, remarking at a recent conference that Johnson was poor and ugly and so Tetty was an opportunity that he could not pass up.
However, the volume was not without its critics. Freya Johnston, writing in the Literary Review
Literary Review
Literary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
, observed of the biography: "David Nokes offers no fresh critical interpretations of Johnson; he treats Rasselas, a vigorous, bleak and witty road novel, as a problematic repository of its author's 'obsessions'. Given Johnson's hope that biography might instruct and appeal to everyone, it seems a pity to identify his works as - above all else - symptoms of an odd sensibility: it makes them less invitingly applicable to the rest of us."