The Light Reading of Dr. Johnson

Abstract

Every great man has his lighter moments. Dr. Johnson composed the “great whale” periods of the Rambler, made a Dictionary (itself at times very good light reading), edited Shakespeare, and in his old age wrote comfortably mellow and acute Lives of the Poets. He was much concerned about politics and religion. Prodded judiciously at intervals by Boswell, he discoursed wisely and wittily on such diverse subjects as matrimony, methods of shaving, and the wretchedness of a sea-life. He noted, as a traveller with an inquiring mind, the treelessness of Scotland and the grossness of French manners. But he had his undress moments, when he was neither author nor sage nor observer, and some of them were spent in reading novels.