Boswell's Presumptuous Task

Writing the Life of Dr Johnson

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"James Boswell's Life of Johnson is the most celebrated of all biographies, acknowledged as one of the greatest and most entertaining books in the English language. And yet Boswell himself has generally been considered little more than an idiot, tolerated by his friends as an agreeable scatterbrain, regarded by his contemporaries as a man of no judgement whatsoever, and condemned by posterity as a lecher and a drunk. How could such a fool have written such a book?" "This is the story of Boswell's "presumptuous task": his biography of Samuel Johnson. It traces the friendship between Boswell and his great mentor, one of the most unlikely pairings in the history of literature, and provides a fascinating and original account of Boswell's seven-year struggle to write the Life, following Johnson's death in 1784. At the time, Boswell was trying and failing to make his mark in the world, desperate for money, debilitated by drinking, torn between his duties at home as a Scots laird and the lure of London, tormented by rival biographers, often embarrassed, humiliated, or depressed. ("Many a time have I thought of giving it up," he confessed when the work was almost finished.) A dazzling study of the biographer at work, Boswell's Presumptuous Task movingly shows how a man who failed in almost everything else produced a masterpiece."--BOOK JACKET.