Though the book is interesting mainly on Donne (under the section on Cowley), Milton, Dryden and Addison, Johnson is a great critic and a pleasure to read in his own right. He is, to use an inexact word, weighty. For instance: "It appears, in all his [Milton's] writings, that he had the usual concom

Though I'm no fan of Johnson, his account of Pope, and his "amus[ing] himself at the table with biscuits", may actually be the source of my love of the snide sniping of the eighteenth century (the potted lampreys just kill me):

His legs were so slender that he enlarged their bulk with three pair of

I have the 2 volume 1826 Dove's English Classics edition, easily the oldest books I own and I did want to make a point of that. The text is tiny and many of the pages are set charmingly askew but compared to many used books in my library the binding is still flawless and the pages are in excellent c

I think the main interest in this work is in the polished and pompous writing of Dr Johnson. How did he keep it up? And since so much of this is precis (or probably the reverse), why did he bother? I'm still struggling to find out what is so great about The Great Doctor.

Just began reading it after Frank McCourt name dropped it in his memoir 'Tis. More than a collection of biographies, it is a collection of his ideas on what makes good and bad poetry. Surprisingly relevant even if published in 1779.

9/15/14: Well, I seem to have begun a Project, for better or worse. I recently reread 84, Charing Cross Road, and was struck by Helen Hanff's love for not only the contents of the books she received from Marks & Co., but for the volumes themselves as beautiful objects. So I went to my shelves and pu