Leslie Stephen: Samuel Johnson, Kartoniert / Broschiert

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is a biographical account written in the late 19th century. ThebookdelvesintothelifeandlegacyofSamuel Johnson, exploring various significant aspects of his existence from child hoodthroughto his literarycontributionsand his relationshipswith friends andcontemporaries. Thebeginningofthebookopenswithanexamination of Johnson's early life, detailing his background in Lichfield where he was born in 1709 to a bookseller father. This portion highlights the challenges he faced from a young age, including health issues and the influence of his father's ambitions. Johnson's childhood is portrayed as a mix of eccentricity and brilliance, marked by his early intellectual pursuits and social interac tions that shaped his character. The narrative weaves in anecdotes about his quirky behavior and remarkable intellectual capacity, setting the stage for the deeper explorations of his literary career and personal struggles that fol low in the subsequent chapters His father, Michael John son, was a bookseller, highly respected by the cathedral clergy, and for a time sufficiently prosperous to be a magistrate of the town, and, in the year of his son's birth, sheriff of the county. He opened a bookstall on market days at neighbouring towns, including Birmingham, which was as yet un able to maintain a separate bookseller. The tradesman often exaggerates the prejudices of the class whose wants he supplies, and Michael Johnson was probably a more devoted High Churchman and Tory than many of the cathedral clergy themselves. He reconciled himself with difficulty to taking the oaths against the exiled dynasty. He was a man of considerable mental andphysical power, buttormentedbyhypochondriacaltendencies. Hisson inherited a share both of his constitution and of his principles. Long after wards Samuel associated with his childish days a faint but solemn recollec tion of a lady in diamonds and long blackhood. TheladywasQueenAnne, to whom, in compliance with a superstition just dying a natural death, he had been taken by his mother to be touched for the king's evil.