
The Life of Samuel Johnson
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Narrated by:
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Jim Killavey
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By:
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James Boswell
About this listen
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Between the years of 1762 and 1763, James Boswell kept a journal of his time in London. During his time, he met the renowned writer, moralist, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, with whom Boswell would form a close relationship. This account, told with much detail and candor, was one of the various journals written by Boswell, but it is the journal that has undergone the least amount of censorship, leading it, and the racy material within, to be deemed a best seller upon publication.
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In 1773, 63-year-old literary giant Samuel Johnson joined James Boswell, a 32-year-old Scottish lawyer, on an historic horseback expedition across the Scottish Highlands to the Western Islands. The unlikely duo's travelogue records their fascinating conversations and encounters with great wit and incredible detail. Johnson, one of the 18th century's most celebrated writers, provided an elegant and stately account of everything from Loch Ness's medicinal waters to Scotland's puzzling lack of trees.
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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-
Overall
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-
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First published in 1621, and hardly ever out of print since, it is a huge, varied, idiosyncratic, entertaining and learned survey of the experience of melancholy, seen from just about every possible angle that could be imagined. The Anatomy of Melancholy, presented here with all the original quotations in English, is, at last, available on audiobook in its entirety.
-
-
Nam Et Doctis Hisce Erroribus Versatus Sum
- By Darwin8u on 05-26-20
By: Robert Burton
-
London Journal
- By: James Boswell
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between the years of 1762 and 1763, James Boswell kept a journal of his time in London. During his time, he met the renowned writer, moralist, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, with whom Boswell would form a close relationship. This account, told with much detail and candor, was one of the various journals written by Boswell, but it is the journal that has undergone the least amount of censorship, leading it, and the racy material within, to be deemed a best seller upon publication.
-
-
THIS ISNT THE WHOLE BOOK
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-20
By: James Boswell
-
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
- By: Samuel Johnson, James Boswell
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull, Alexander Spencer
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1773, 63-year-old literary giant Samuel Johnson joined James Boswell, a 32-year-old Scottish lawyer, on an historic horseback expedition across the Scottish Highlands to the Western Islands. The unlikely duo's travelogue records their fascinating conversations and encounters with great wit and incredible detail. Johnson, one of the 18th century's most celebrated writers, provided an elegant and stately account of everything from Loch Ness's medicinal waters to Scotland's puzzling lack of trees.
-
-
Tasty, but abridged
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By: Samuel Johnson, and others
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- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Laurence Sterne’s most famous novel is a biting satire of literary conventions and contemporary 18th-century values. Renowned for its parody of established narrative techniques, Tristram Shandyis commonly regarded as the forerunner of avant-garde fiction. Tristram’s characteristic digressions on a whole range of unlikely subjects (including battle strategy and noses!) are endlessly surprising and make this one of Britain’s greatest comic achievements.
-
-
Like discovering Frank Zappa in 250 years
- By Darwin8u on 01-02-14
By: Laurence Sterne
-
The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
-
-
Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
-
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- By: Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Donald M. Frame - translator
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 49 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review)
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What listeners say about The Life of Samuel Johnson
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Empowerment
- 05-08-09
Great if...
If you are interested in history and biography, this book gives a fascinating portrayal of its time and of probably the most famous man of that time.
A word of warning - listen to the sample. It is an English book but read by an American. I happen to like that - I find English accents call too much attention to themselves..at least for me. Some feel the opposite though so...listen first.
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31 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stefan
- 07-18-09
Such a Shame
The book was so promising, lively, witty, literate, entertaining. But I realized after half an hour, there was no way I could listen to this reader for 33 hours. For sheer monotone, lack of expression, insistence on pausing every five or six words, making no vocal distinction whatsoever when a character begins to speak, and overall indifference to the material read, I have seldom heard his equal. For those of you familiar with the site, he reminded me of a LibriVox volunteer reader. A drone to say the least. The book deserves so much more.
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19 people found this helpful