Tag Archives: samuel johnson

Boswell and Johnson’s enjoyable tour marred by irritating annotator

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Nigel Smith

As I mentioned in my last post, reading Michael Innes’s From London Far spurred me on to reread Johnson & Boswell’s Hebridean journals. I had forgotten about Peter Levi’s notes – irritating, sometimes glossing things which don’t need it and … Continue reading →

Posted in books, landscape | Tagged Hebrides, James Boswell, Peter Levi, samuel johnson, Scotland | 2 Comments

The Female Quixote: or the Adventures of Arabella by Charlotte Lennox

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Nigel Smith

I’m a bit disappointed in this book. It has a one-joke plot, and after the first 200-or-so pages it wears a bit thin. The conceit of the novel is that the heroine, Arabella, has been kept in rustic isolation, spending … Continue reading →

Posted in books | Tagged Charlotte Lennox, Female Quixote, samuel johnson | Leave a comment

Dr. Johnson’s House and Bill Bryson at Guildhall

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Nigel Smith

I have been telling myself for years that I would visit Samuel Johnson’s House in London, more so since I visited his Birthplace Museum back in June. I was due at Guildhall in the City for 5.30, so decided I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology/history, books, museums & galleries, science | Tagged Bill Bryson, Gresham College, Guildhall, Royal Society, samuel johnson, science | 2 Comments

Dr Johnson & Mrs Thrale’s Tour in North Wales 1774

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Nigel Smith

Poor Hester Thrale, she had high hopes for her tour of North Wales with Samuel Johnson. In 1773 he had made his famous tour to the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles with James Boswell, which he enjoyed immensely, and which … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology/history, books, landscape | Tagged hester piozzi, hester thrale, samuel johnson, wales | Leave a comment

Translations of elderly literature – and place-names

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Nigel Smith

‘I have endeavoured to make him speak that kind of English, which he would have spoken had he lived in England, and had written to this age.’ That’s what Dryden said as translator of Juvenal, but I find this a … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology/history, books, landscape | Tagged candide, language, picaresque novels, place-names, rasselas, samuel johnson, thomas more, utopia, voltaire | 1 Comment

Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, Lichfield

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Nigel Smith

I was a bit short of sleep yesterday. Getting a good night’s sleep on a university campus is not that easy. Footballing and skateboarding were still going on just outside the window at 1 am, when I eventually dozed off; … Continue reading →

Posted in archaeology/history, books, museums & galleries | Tagged lichfield, samuel johnson, samuel johnson birthplace museum, tea | 1 Comment

Neglected Classics and Rasselas

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Nigel Smith

There’s a dramatisation of The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow (Sunday May 22nd). Last year Radio 4’s Open Book programme had a feature in which various authors chose a favourite ‘neglected classic’. Listeners then voted … Continue reading →