1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787385903321

Titolo

Domestick privacies : Samuel Johnson and the art of biography / / edited by David Wheeler ; contributors, James L. Battersby [and seven others]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lexington, Kentucky : , : The University Press of Kentucky, , 1987

©1987

ISBN

0-8131-5916-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (204 p.)

Disciplina

828/.609

Soggetti

Biography as a literary form

Poets, English - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Bibliography: p. [167]-184.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction, the uses of Johnson's biographies / David Wheeler -- Johnson's beginnings / Lawrence Lipking -- Life, art, and the Lives of the poets / James L. Battersby -- Dr. Johnson's solemn response to beneficence / John A. Dussinger -- Johnson's portraits of Charles XII of Sweden / James Gray -- Johnson, Imlac, and biographical thinking / Catherine N. Parke -- The contexts and motives of Johnson's Life of Milton / Stephen Fix -- Johnson's Lives and modern students / William R. Siebenschuh -- Johnson and biography / Michael Stuprich.

Sommario/riassunto

Biography was Samuel Johnson's favorite among literary genres, and his  Lives of the Poets is often regarded as the capstone of his career. The central place of biography in his oeuvre is explored in this collection of nine original essays by leading Johnson scholars. Varied in their focus and approach, the essays range from a philosophical overview of Johnson's notion of the relation between life and art, to a detailed reading of the  Life of Milton, to a speculation on the value of the  Lives in the classroom.Emerging clearly in the essays are the dual concerns -- artistic and intellectual -