British Literature Unit 3: Chapter 3

1. Samuel Johnson’s best-known work

2. It standardized and clarified the English language for two purposes: preservation and increased communicative power.

A Dictionary of the English Language 

• Had an unsuccessful beginning to his literary career 

• Completed A Dictionary of the English Language in only nine years (1755) 

• His work remained the authority on word meaning for more than a century 

• Reputation cemented with the publication of James Boswell’s great biography about his life, published in 1791. 

• Other than his work as a lexicographer, Johnson’s greatest contribution to British literature is his literary criticism. 

• In his periodical The Rambler, Johnson offered his opinions on a variety of social topics, mostly in a neoclassical style. 

• Johnson’s works exhibit a more down-to-earth style with accurate, precise language that anyone can understand.

• Johnson sought to tell the truth rather than furnish scandalous or glowing information. His Lives of Poets presents both positive and negative facts about his subjects

• Johnson is self deprecating

• Johnson’s tone in his works tend to be personal, humorous, and ironic.

Samuel Johnson

refers to the human ability to feel emotions — especially the ability to sympathize with the emotions of others — and the ability to appreciate goodness.

Sensibility

a group of poets who wrote contemplations on death and life after death

Graveyard Poets

a mode of writing formed by a combination of elements such as syntax (word order), diction (word choices), figurative language, imagery, tone, and voice

Style

the practice of establishing criteria for and engaging in the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of works of literature

Literary Criticism

• Author is Samuel Johnson 

• Realistic stories are superior to the romantic fictional ones because we can learn more from the realistic stories 

• Portray vice in realistic stories but don’t glamorize it 

• Include virtue as a good thing 

• “In narratives where historical veracity has no place, I cannot discover why there should not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue.” 

The Rambler 4

the unique imprint of an author’s personality on a work

voice

• Met Samuel Johnson when Johnson was fifty-four and a well established author 

• Admitted to the literary club 

• Kept a journal of his travels through Scotland with Johnson 

• Published biography of Johnson seven years after Johnson’s death 

James Boswell

a nonfiction account of the life events of a real person other than the author

Biography

short narratives of interesting or amusing incidents

Anecdotes

conversations between characters

Dialogue

• Author is James Boswell 

• James Boswell and Samuel Johnson met in 1763. Boswell was very happy to meet him because he admired Johnson as a person and an author. 

  • Johnson can be blunt

• Johnson believed that a truthful biography should present a balanced view of its subject, including the good and bad. He thought people resented as “angelically good” were impossible to emulate 

• Johnson was well-known for his fear of death and the possible loss of his mental faculties (he frequently suffered from depression), but he was also a devout Christian

• “I will take no more physic, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God unclouded.” 

The Life of Samuel Johnson

• Educated at Eton and Cambridge 

• One of the era’s most-learned men 

• Most famous poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard published in 1751 

• Elegy is often considered the century’s finest poem 

Thomas Gray

diction aimed to elevate important genres by using refined words and elaborately rephrasing ideas to avoid everyday language

Poetic Diction

• Author is Thomas Gray 

• Written in Neoclassical style and Iambic pentameter 

• Theme: meditation on death and that everyone desires and deserves to be remembered 

• Just because someone may not be seen or remembered when they die, it doesn’t mean they aren’t of value or important. 

• The character qualities of people matter more than social status.

• “Full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.” 

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard