The New Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson

Deeply informed and accessible, this Companion unveils Johnson's strikingly progressive engagement in literature, politics, and society.

Greg Clingham (Edited by)

9781108832823, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 September 2022

275 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

Students, scholars, and general readers alike will find the New Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson deeply informed and appealingly written. Each newly commissioned chapter explores aspects of Johnson's writing and thought, including his ethical grasp of life, his views of language, the roots of his ideas in Renaissance humanism, and his skeptical-humane style. Among the themes engaged are history, disability, gender, politics, race, slavery, Johnson's representation in art, and the significance of the Yale Edition. Works discussed include Johnson's poetry and fiction, his moral essays and political tracts, his Shakespeare edition and Dictionary, and his critical, biographical, and travel writing. A narrated Further Reading provides an informative guide to the study of Johnson, and a substantial Introduction highlights how his literary practice, philosophical values, and life experience provide a challenge to readers new and established. Through fresh, integrated insights, this authoritative guide reveals the surprising contemporaneity of Johnson's thought.

Introduction: contemporary Johnson Greg Clingham
1. Johnson, ethics, and living Min Wild
2. Johnson and the essay Philip Smallwood
3. Johnson and Renaissance humanism Anthony W. Lee
4. Johnson and language Lynda Mugglestone
5. Johnson and British historiography Martine W. Brownley
6. Johnson and fiction Freya Johnston
7. Johnson and gender Samara Anne Cahill
8. Johnson, race, and slavery Nicholas Hudson
9. Johnson's politics Clement Hawes
10. Johnson's poetry John Richetti
11. Johnson's editions of Shakespeare Tom Mason
12. Johnson's Lives of the Poets: a guided tour Fred Parker
13. Johnson as biographer Leo Damrosch
14. Johnson and travel Anne M. Thell
15. Johnson and disability Paul Kelleher
16. Representing Johnson in life and after Heather McPherson
17. Johnson among the scholars Robert De Maria, Jr.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]