Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Boswell's ambiguities
- Part I BOSWELL AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCOTTISH CULTURE
- Part II CONTEXTS FOR THE LIFE OF JOHNSON
- Part III THE LIFE OF JOHNSON RECONSIDERED
- 10 The originality of Boswell's version of Johnson's quarrel with Lord Chesterfield
- 11 Self-restraint and self-display in the authorial comments in the Life of Johnson
- 12 Johnson's conversation in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- 13 Remembering the hero in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- 14 Truth and artifice in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- Index
14 - Truth and artifice in Boswell's Life of Johnson
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Boswell's ambiguities
- Part I BOSWELL AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCOTTISH CULTURE
- Part II CONTEXTS FOR THE LIFE OF JOHNSON
- Part III THE LIFE OF JOHNSON RECONSIDERED
- 10 The originality of Boswell's version of Johnson's quarrel with Lord Chesterfield
- 11 Self-restraint and self-display in the authorial comments in the Life of Johnson
- 12 Johnson's conversation in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- 13 Remembering the hero in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- 14 Truth and artifice in Boswell's Life of Johnson
- Index
Summary
Boswell was ever-protective of Johnson's reputation and concerned to establish what he considered the truth about the great moralist. On March 16, 1776 Boswell pointed out to Johnson that he had been misrepresented in a volume of Johnsoniana just published, and suggested that Johnson disavow the publication lest it damage his reputation. Boswell's identification with Johnson seems to have been so strong that to Johnson's unequivocal “I shall give myself no trouble about the matter,” Boswell could not help thinking of Johnson's elevated character and how worried he, Boswell, would be if he were in Johnson's place (Life, II, 432–3). Perhaps by way of explaining his position, Johnson tells a story about telling stories:
The value of every story depends on its being true. A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it be false, it is a picture of nothing. For instance: suppose a man should tell that Johnson, before setting out for Italy, as he had to cross the Alps, sat down to make himself wings. This many people would believe; but it would be a picture of nothing…[Langton] used to think a story, a story, till I shewed him that truth was essential to it. (Life, II, 433–4)
The “truth” of Johnson's absurd little anecdote is obviously other than the traveller's literal intention or capacity to fly over the Alps.
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- Information
- New Light on BoswellCritical and Historical Essays on the Occasion of the Bicententary of the 'Life' of Johnson, pp. 207 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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