Samuel Johnson

BOOK REVIEWS Samuel Johnson O M Brack, Jr. Arizona State University David R. Anderson and Gwin J. KoIb, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Samuel Johnson. New York: Modern Language Association ofAmerica, 1993. 152 p. John Cannon. Samuel Johnson and the Politics of Hanoverian England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. 326 p. J. C. D. Clark. Samuel Johnson: Literature, Religion and English Cultural Politics from the Restoration to Romanticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 270 p. Robert DeMaria, Jr. The Life of Samuel Johnson: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993. 356 p. Gloria Sybil Gross. This Invisible Riot of the Mind: Samuel Johnson's Psychological Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. 198 p. Charles H. Hinnant. "Steel for the Mind": Samuel Johnson and Critical Discourse. Newark: University ofDelaware Press, 1994. 251 p. A. D. Horgan. Johnson on Language: An Introduction. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. 226 p. Pat Rogers, ed. Johnson and Boswell in Scotland: A Journey to the Hebrides. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 330 p. Edward Tomarken. A History of the Commentary on Selected Writings of Samuel Johnson. Columbia: Camden House, 1994. 184 p. 1 he renewal ofinterest in the life and writings of Samuel Johnson, stimulated by the celebrations surrounding the 200th anniversary of his death on 13 December 1984, shows no sign of abatement. Out of these meetings grew the idea for a new annual, Age of Johnson (1987-), edited by Paul J. Korshin, which has provided a forum for "all aspects of the literature, history , and culture of the period of Samuel Johnson's literary career and primary influence, roughly the years from 1730 to 1810." Important books have appeared on the Dictionary, on Johnson as biographer, critic, essayist, creator of fictions, and professional writer, and on his attitude toward the arts, language, medicine, politics, religion, and travel. Two signficant editions of primary works have appeared or will appear in the 1990s. The first 169 170Rocky Mountain Review is the magnificent Hyde Edition of The Letters of Samuel Johnson in five volumes, edited by Bruce Redford (Princeton University Press, 1992-94) and Boswell's Life ofJohnson: An Edition ofthe Original Manuscript in four volumes , the first volume edited by Marshall Waingrow and the remaining volumes edited by Bruce Redford (Yale University Press; University of Edinburgh Press, 1995-). The first volume has been published, but not in time to be included in this review. The availability of these important primary works will undoubtedly stimulate further studies along the lines of those under review here, but will also send scholars and critics off in new directions. Where Johnson scholarship has been and where it might go is addressed by Edward Tomarken. His book has eight chapters: the Life of Savage and other early biographies, nondramatic poems, Irene, periodical essays, Rasselas, Shakespeare criticism, Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, and Lives ofthe Poets. Each chapter has the same structure: there is a review of critical commentary from the initial publication of the work until 1992, followed by suggestions for future critical analyses. Of necessity Tomarken has had to select the commentary he thinks most significant and representative so that each chapter serves only as an overview of critical approaches to a given work and not as a bibliography of the criticism and scholarship available. Although Tomarken's ability to review close to 500 pieces is impressive, beginning students of Johnson should beware of building an argument based solely on these references, as the choices for inclusion or exclusion are open for debate. But it is a good place to start reviewing the information available on a work to avoid the mistake made by several recent writers on Rasselas—"None of these critics seems aware that the question of religion in Rasselas has remained a topic of debate for the past two and one-half centuries" (91). Reading the history of the commentary on a given work proves fascinating reading, even if the cumulative effect of reading one chapter after another may result in depression. Too often it is discovered, as Tomarken remarks of the periodical essays, "We seem to have come full circle" (61). As Johnson himself remarked, this is 'To imagine...