"The raison d'être of this edition (well printed in quarto form, but only one column to the page) is its illustrations. Of these there are portraits from authentic originals, views from old prints, autographs, facsimile title-pages, etc.; and a series of views of Johnson's haunts, drawn specially for the book, which, so far as we can at present judge from the pen-and-ink drawings now issued, are of a pleasing kind. Mr. Ingpen's literary contribution consists of short notes to the pictures, and his industry in collecting illustrative material seems likely to deserve much gratitude from modern readers. There will never be an edition of Johnson such as that Messrs. Pitman are issuing of Boswell with excellent illustrations."-Times. "Includes a wealth of carefully annotated pictures of various kinds. . . We congratulate publisher and author on the excellent idea of illustrating the greatest of biographies on an ample scale. The part before us contains a happy choice of pictures of places as well as persons, and may well appeal even to those who have already, like the present reviewer, some five editions of Boswell among his books. To the ordinary public the chance to get a cheap edition with exceptional features should be irresistible.”—Athenæum. "No previous edition of Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' has contained anything like the number of the illustrations which Mr. Roger Ingpen has collected. Were it only as a collection of eighteenth-century portraits this new setting of Boswell would be of the greatest value. But it is much more than that it distinctly adds to the attractiveness of this famous biography."--Literary World. " Mr. Ingpen is too good a Johnsonian and too good an editor to let these pictures be a mere collection. He has chosen authentic pictures only, and further they are pictures that rightly illustrate the Life. Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney-here are three masters of art who contribute from the stores from which it has been possible to draw. 'It should appeal to a great company of readers, those, in particular, who still have to taste the joy of acquaintance with the immortal book. Their introduction to it could not take place under better auspices than these well-illustrated, well-printed, well-edited pages.”—Daily Chronicle. We welcome with the greatest warmth the new edition which is being brought out by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, and which, edited by Mr. Roger Ingpen, brings before us, by the profusion and value of its portraits, prints, and illustrations, the personalities and surroundings of Dr. Johnson's day in a way that no previous edition has accomplished. Easily in front of every other illustrated edition of Boswell's masterpiece."-Daily Graphic. TESTIMONIA JOHNSON "Few men have the gifts of Johnson, who, to great vigour and resource of intellect, when it was fairly roused, united a rare common-sense and a conscientious regard for veracity, which preserved him from flippancy or extravagance in writing."-CARDINAL NEWMAN. The old "But the memory of Johnson keeps many of his works alive. philosopher is still among us in the brown coat with the metal buttons and the shirt which ought to be at wash, blinking, puffing, rolling his head, drumming with his fingers, tearing his meat like a tiger, and swallowing his tea in oceans. No human being who has been more than seventy years in the grave is so well known to us. And it is but just to say that our intimate acquaintance with what he would himself have called the anfractuosities of his intellect and of his temper, serves only to strengthen our conviction that he was both a great and a good man."-LORD MACAULAY. 'Johnson, in the eighteenth century, and as Man of Letters, was one of such; and, in good truth, the bravest of the brave.' What mortal could have more to war with? Yet, as we saw, he yielded not, faltered not; he fought, and even, such was his blessedness, prevailed. Whoso will understand what it is to have a man's heart, may find that, since the time of John Milton, no braver heart had beat in any English bosom than Samuel Johnson now bore."-THOMAS CARLYLE. "The names of many greater writers are inscribed on the walls of Westminster Abbey; but scarcely anyone lies there whose heart was more acutely responsive during life to the deepest and tenderest of human emotions. In visiting that strange gathering of departed heroes and statesmen and philanthropists and poets, there are many whose words and deeds have a far greater influence upon our imaginations; but there are very few whom, when all has been said, we can love so heartily as Samuel Johnson."-SIR Leslie Stephen. |
