Samuel JohnsonHe was a servant to the public, a writer for hire. He was a hero, an author adding to the glory of his nation. But can a writer be both hack and hero? The career of Samuel Johnson, recounted here by Lawrence Lipking, proves that the two can be one. And it further proves, in its enduring interest for readers, that academic fashions today may be a bit hasty in pronouncing the "death of the author." |
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... Patron swell into allegorical figures , two individuals playing their parts in an eternal morality play . Hence the letter was always destined to be an exam- ple of something important : the fall of the patronage system , the rise of ...
... Patron , and the Jail . " 37 Evidently Johnson likes to ventilate his re- venge . Yet his satirical hits also seem to assume that patronage re- mains the way of the world . In Johnson's mind , at any rate , the pa- tron slips naturally ...
... patron , could not watch a poor victim struggle without trying to help ; a lover offers encouragement at the earliest , darkest moment ; a lover relieves the dreariness of indiffer- ence and solitude . In all these ways Lord ...
Contents
the Western Islands of Scotland | 234 |
The Lives of the English Poets | 259 |
Johnsons Endings | 295 |
Copyright | |
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