Dr Samuel Johnson’s literary works are full of variety and interest. They include biographies, essays, political pamphlets, significant poems, a body of literary criticism remarkable for its range and shrewdness, a famous dictionary, and an edition of Shakespeare’s plays.
Throughout his life, Johnson suffered from strong feelings of guilt and a very real fear of insanity. These feelings had a strong influence on his writings, forcing him to communicate, to ‘remind’ his readers of their limitations and weaknesses. Yet he also had an abiding sense of the dignity and importance of human aspirations. In a profound way, he recognized that ‘the proper study of mankind is man’, and his own works bear witness to his genuine and fundamental humanity. In his book Samuel Johnson (originally published in 1979), the author shows that Johnson’s real strength as a writer derives from this humanity, his ability to feel enormous compassion at the same time as he grapples with the central problems of human existence. John Hardy makes a detailed interpretation of all of Johnson’s major works, devoting particular attention to the connection between Samuel Johnson’s deeply spiritual nature and impressive intelligence as a writer.