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.

• Preface and Acknowledgements A Note on Major Editions Cited and Short Titles Introduction: ‘Johnson Studies’ and the Common Reader PHILIP SMALLWOODPART 1: Poetry and the Criticism of Poetry1 ‘Perpetually a Poet’: Johnson’s Poetry in Verse and Prose PHILIP SMALLWOOD2 ‘Pointed Axioms and Acute Replies’: The Fascination of Johnson’s Overlooked ‘Lives’ADAM ROUNCE3 Richard Hurd’s Select Works of Cowley (1772) and Johnson’s Art of Selection MICHAEL EDSON4 Johnson’s Dryden DAVID HOPKINS5 ‘Prior Is Never Low, Nor Very Often Sublime’: Matthew Prior, Johnson, and Hard Work versus Inspiration CONRAD BRUNSTRÖM6 ‘Splendid Amplifications’: Johnson’s ‘Life of Pope’ IAN CALVERTPART 2: Cultural Relations 7 Athwart the Enlightenment: Samuel Johnson’s Philosophical and Intellectual Engagements FRANS DE BRUYN8 ‘Poor Bear’: Lady Anne Lindsay Barnard’s Dr. Johnson GREG CLINGHAM9 ‘I Smell You in the Dark’: Johnson, Orange Peel and the Art of Biography KATE CHISHOLM10 Johnson and the Definition of Silence ANTHONY HOWE11 Boswell’s Authority as Reader and Critic of Johnson’s Works PAUL TANKARD12 Johnson and the Victorians PHIL JONES13 Old House, New Views: A Curator’s Perspective CELINE LUPPO MCDAID