James Boswell (1740-1795), biographer of Samuel Johnson and lifelong diarist, provided one of the most detailed descriptions of eighteenth-century London life in his London Journal: 1762-1763. In it, Boswell chronicled his self-conscious attempts to refashion himself from the uncultivated Scottish youth that he worried he was into the refined London gentleman he desperately wanted to become. Moving to London at a time when Post-Union Britain was supposedly ushering in a new era of ‘Britishness’, Boswell’s musings offer a different perspective, one in which nationalism – specifically, English and Scottish nationalism – played an important role in Boswell’s quest to construct his idealized genteel identity. Examinations of Boswell’s Journal reveal important insight into his views on national identity, masculinity, and the city of London itself, as well as how all of these aspects relate to each other in shaping Boswell’s quest to shape his character.

'Teetering on the verge of complete sanity': Boswell's life of Boswell.

“I think myself as good as anybody” :nationalism, manliness, space and identity in Boswell’s London Journal

This article examines James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson , his celebrated biography of his friend, the great 18th-century literary figure, Samuel Johnson. The book records their many conversations, much of which was concerned with madness and melancholy. This is not surprising as both men experienced recurrent bouts of low spirits. They also lived in an era which has been called ‘The Age of Nerves’. This article will consider how they conceived of ‘nervous disease’ and how they tried to remedy it. It will also look at Johnson’s role as a therapeutic mentor to Boswell.

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Talking about madness and melancholy: Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson

Boswell's Life of Johnson: the shaping of a self and object world.

Preface and acknowledgements Abbreviations Notes on contributors Introduction: Boswell's ambiguity David Daiches Part I. Boswell and Eighteenth-Century Scottish Culture: 1. Boswell and the rhetoric of friendship Thomas Crawford 2. Scottish divines and legal lairds: Boswell's Scots presbyterian identity Richard B. Sher 3. Boswell and the Scotticism Pat Rogers 4. Boswell as man of letters Joan H. Pittock Part II. Contexts for the Life of Johnson: 5. Boswell's liberty-loving Account of Corsica and the art of travel literature Thomas M. Curley 6. Boswell and sympathy: the trial and execution of John Reid Gordon Turnbull 7. Boswell and Hume: the deathbed interview Richard B. Swchwrtz 8. 'This philosophical melancholy': style and self in Boswell and Hume Susan Manning Part III. The Life of Johnson Reconsidered: 9. The originality of Boswell's version of Johnson's quarrel with Lord Chesterfield John J. Burke, Jr. 10. Self-restraint and self-display in the authorial comments in the Life of Johnson Marlies K. Danziger 11. The conversations in the Life of Johnson Paul J. Korshin 12. Remembering the hero in Boswell's Life of Johnson Donna Heiland 13. Truth and artifice in Boswell's Life of Johnson Greg Clingham Index.

'Teetering on the verge of complete sanity': Boswell's life of Boswell.

Citations

“I think myself as good as anybody” :nationalism, manliness, space and identity in Boswell’s London Journal

Talking about madness and melancholy: Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson

Boswell's Life of Johnson: the shaping of a self and object world.

References

New Light on Boswell: Critical and Historical Essays on the Occasion of the Bicententary of the 'Life' of Johnson

Boswell, the biographer's character; a psychoanalytic interpretation.