Read James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769

James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769

Frederick A. Pottle

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Description:Why a biography of Boswell? Because much information about him occurs in unpublished and unliterary sources; because the autobiographical matter now available is so voluminous and fragmented that only special knowledge can reduce it to an intelligible picture; because readers of today want a present-day synthesis.Frederick A. Pottle has devoted a lifetime to the study of Boswell. He is the acknowledged authority on the subject, and perhaps knows more Boswell better than Boswell knew himself. His unparalleled knowledge and graceful style qualify him uniquely to convert the welter of information -- much of it recently recovered -- into a convincing portrait of James Boswell: Scot, lawyer, hypochondriac, rake, show-off -- above all, author.Eagerly awaited for more than a decade, James Boswell, The Earlier Years is a rapid and compelling narrative. The long line of lairds of Auchinleck are shown pressing on Boswell's consciousness. His childhood and adolescence for the first time take shape. His religious turmoils, which carried him through Methodism and Pythagoreanism to Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, are absorbingly reconstructed. His flirtations, his guilt-ridden affair with a young married woman of his own circle, his intrigues with actresses, his dealings with his lively kept-mistress, his occasional recourse to street-girls, are frankly presented as essential but subordinate details. We are never allowed to lose sight of Boswell the intrepid traveller, the admired author, the hard-working and brilliant criminal lawyer, the odd and lovable young man who charmed the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, the brilliant bluestocking Belle de Zuylen, the high-born lady Girolama Piccolomini, and such formidable heroes of letters as Johnson, Rousseau, and Voltaire.From this brilliantly imaginative study emerges a man we can know almost perfectly: a paradoxical character, shrewd of head and foolish in behavior, vain and disarmingly honest, sensual and pious, charming and exasperating, self-indulgent and warm-hearted, who somehow in the Age of Enlightenment managed to think and write like a man of the twentieth century.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769. To get started finding James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: —

Release: 1985

ISBN: 0070505780

Description: Why a biography of Boswell? Because much information about him occurs in unpublished and unliterary sources; because the autobiographical matter now available is so voluminous and fragmented that only special knowledge can reduce it to an intelligible picture; because readers of today want a present-day synthesis.Frederick A. Pottle has devoted a lifetime to the study of Boswell. He is the acknowledged authority on the subject, and perhaps knows more Boswell better than Boswell knew himself. His unparalleled knowledge and graceful style qualify him uniquely to convert the welter of information -- much of it recently recovered -- into a convincing portrait of James Boswell: Scot, lawyer, hypochondriac, rake, show-off -- above all, author.Eagerly awaited for more than a decade, James Boswell, The Earlier Years is a rapid and compelling narrative. The long line of lairds of Auchinleck are shown pressing on Boswell's consciousness. His childhood and adolescence for the first time take shape. His religious turmoils, which carried him through Methodism and Pythagoreanism to Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, are absorbingly reconstructed. His flirtations, his guilt-ridden affair with a young married woman of his own circle, his intrigues with actresses, his dealings with his lively kept-mistress, his occasional recourse to street-girls, are frankly presented as essential but subordinate details. We are never allowed to lose sight of Boswell the intrepid traveller, the admired author, the hard-working and brilliant criminal lawyer, the odd and lovable young man who charmed the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, the brilliant bluestocking Belle de Zuylen, the high-born lady Girolama Piccolomini, and such formidable heroes of letters as Johnson, Rousseau, and Voltaire.From this brilliantly imaginative study emerges a man we can know almost perfectly: a paradoxical character, shrewd of head and foolish in behavior, vain and disarmingly honest, sensual and pious, charming and exasperating, self-indulgent and warm-hearted, who somehow in the Age of Enlightenment managed to think and write like a man of the twentieth century.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769. To get started finding James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769

James Boswell: The Earlier Years, 1740-1769

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