Samuel Johnson in Perspective

Philip Smallwood is Emeritus Professor of English at Birmingham City University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. His latest prize-winning monograph, The Literary Criticism of Samuel Johnson, was published in 2023.

• List of ContributorsPreface and Acknowledgements; A Note on Major Editions Cited and Short Titles; Introduction: ‘Johnson Studies’ and the Common Reader - PHILIP SMALLWOOD; Part I: Poetry and the Criticism of Poetry; 1.‘Perpetually a Poet’: Johnson’s Poetry in Verse and Prose - PHILIP SMALLWOOD; 2. ‘Pointed axioms and acute replies’: the Fascination of Johnson’s Overlooked ‘Lives’ - ADAM ROUNCE; 3. Richard Hurd’s Select Works of Cowley (1772) and Johnson’s Art of Selection - MICHAEL EDSON; 4. Johnson’s Dryden - DAVID HOPKINS; 5. ‘Prior is never low, nor very often sublime’: Matthew Prior, Johnson, and Hard Work versus Inspiration - CONRAD BRUNSTRÖM; 6. ‘Splendid Amplifications’: Johnson’s Life of Pope - IAN CALVERT; Part II: Cultural Relations; 7. Athwart the Enlightenment: Samuel Johnson’s Philosophical and Intellectual Engagements - FRANS DE BRUYN; 8. ‘Poor Bear’: Lady Anne Lindsay Barnard’s Dr. Johnson - GREG CLINGHAM; 9. ‘I smell you in the dark’: Johnson, Orange Peel and the Art of Biography - KATE CHISHOLM; 10. Johnson and the Definition of Silence - ANTHONY HOWE; 11. Boswell’s Authority as Reader and Critic of Johnson’s Works - PAUL TANKARD; 12. Johnson and the Victorians - PHIL JONES; 13. Old House, New Views: A Curator’s Perspective - CELINE LUPPO MCDAID; Bibliography; Index