John O. (buzzby) -
I read the introduction, Hitchings certainly knows how to turn a phrase, I suppose influenced by reading so much of Johnson. Imagine reading dictionaries all the way through, I've never got past A.
Glen B. (glarnerlad) reviewed Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr Johnson's Dictionary on + 13 more book reviews
Samuel Johnson and his times has long been one of the topics I love to read about. This book added greatly to my understanding of the same.
One thinks of Johnson as the first lexicographer of the English language. But Hitchings points out that this wasn't so. In the 150 years before Johnson, more than 20 English dictionaries had appeared. Johnson's was unique in many ways and more thorough. Incredibly, he took on the task of creating the dictionary almost solo. He was not part of a team of researchers. He used six amanuenses. As a testimony to his charitable nature, these six were accustomed to poverty. He employed them for their assistance in helping him in mechanical aspects of compiling the dictionary as well as for the companionship they afforded him.
Several writers were cited as having read through the dictionary. The most well-known of these today is Robert Browning, who did so to help to prepare himself for his literary career.
To support his 42,773 word entries, Johnson used around 110,000 quotations. His choice of authors quoted tells much about his tastes and opinions. He quotes himself 33 times, with a few of these being sayings he made up on the spot just to include. The quotations he preferred to use illustrated prudence, piety, morality, scholarship, everyday wisdom, or had literary value. He used writers of the first reputation. For this reason his work has been called a literary anthology.
With the fourth edition, Johnson made a conscious effort to âmake the Dictionary a pious, educational and exemplary book, full of good moral counsel and Christian doctrine. . .â This was partly because he felt at that time that the orthodox values of the Church of England were under attack. As a young man, Johnson had encountered the work of William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. This book would profoundly influence him and cause him to think earnestly about the Christian life. After Law's death, when it came time for the fourth edition of the dictionary, Johnson included nearly 200 quotations from him. He liked to included classical authors because they were long dead and their writing could not be changed. It was not susceptible to fashion.
One area of human endeavor that gets very little coverage in the dictionary is music. Hitchings states that Johnson was âvery insensible to the power of music.â Oddly, he had an inability to appreciate the achievement of composers such as Bach and Handel.
Johnson makes no effort to keep his definitions uniform in length. Words that appeal to him more get greater coverage and illustration. Words he doesn't care for get the briefest explanations.
Only once did I cringe at something the author says. Lord Chesterfield was an early patron of Johnson's who initially expressed his support of the dictionary, but never followed through much with finances. Hitchings states that Chesterfield and Johnson were related. He then explains that Johnson's grandmother had a great-niece who was married to Lord Chesterfield's brother. As a genealogist, one of my pet peeves is for otherwise intelligent people to have no conception of what constitutes a relationship and an inability to grasp the exact nature of relationships. This is not a blood relationship. At best, Johnson and Chesterfield have mutual relatives. They are clearly not related themselves if measured by the terms given by Hitchings.
A good summary of the dictionary is given by the author when he states, âMore than any other English dictionary, it abounds with stories, arcane information, home truths, snippets of trivia, and lost myths. It is, in short, a treasure house.â
For many years, lexicographers in England and the United States have borrowed, sometimes verbatim, the definitions introduced by Samuel Johnson.
I can recommend this book for those who want an introduction to Johnson as well as to those who have already found him to be a remarkable topic for study.
One thinks of Johnson as the first lexicographer of the English language. But Hitchings points out that this wasn't so. In the 150 years before Johnson, more than 20 English dictionaries had appeared. Johnson's was unique in many ways and more thorough. Incredibly, he took on the task of creating the dictionary almost solo. He was not part of a team of researchers. He used six amanuenses. As a testimony to his charitable nature, these six were accustomed to poverty. He employed them for their assistance in helping him in mechanical aspects of compiling the dictionary as well as for the companionship they afforded him.
Several writers were cited as having read through the dictionary. The most well-known of these today is Robert Browning, who did so to help to prepare himself for his literary career.
To support his 42,773 word entries, Johnson used around 110,000 quotations. His choice of authors quoted tells much about his tastes and opinions. He quotes himself 33 times, with a few of these being sayings he made up on the spot just to include. The quotations he preferred to use illustrated prudence, piety, morality, scholarship, everyday wisdom, or had literary value. He used writers of the first reputation. For this reason his work has been called a literary anthology.
With the fourth edition, Johnson made a conscious effort to âmake the Dictionary a pious, educational and exemplary book, full of good moral counsel and Christian doctrine. . .â This was partly because he felt at that time that the orthodox values of the Church of England were under attack. As a young man, Johnson had encountered the work of William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. This book would profoundly influence him and cause him to think earnestly about the Christian life. After Law's death, when it came time for the fourth edition of the dictionary, Johnson included nearly 200 quotations from him. He liked to included classical authors because they were long dead and their writing could not be changed. It was not susceptible to fashion.
One area of human endeavor that gets very little coverage in the dictionary is music. Hitchings states that Johnson was âvery insensible to the power of music.â Oddly, he had an inability to appreciate the achievement of composers such as Bach and Handel.
Johnson makes no effort to keep his definitions uniform in length. Words that appeal to him more get greater coverage and illustration. Words he doesn't care for get the briefest explanations.
Only once did I cringe at something the author says. Lord Chesterfield was an early patron of Johnson's who initially expressed his support of the dictionary, but never followed through much with finances. Hitchings states that Chesterfield and Johnson were related. He then explains that Johnson's grandmother had a great-niece who was married to Lord Chesterfield's brother. As a genealogist, one of my pet peeves is for otherwise intelligent people to have no conception of what constitutes a relationship and an inability to grasp the exact nature of relationships. This is not a blood relationship. At best, Johnson and Chesterfield have mutual relatives. They are clearly not related themselves if measured by the terms given by Hitchings.
A good summary of the dictionary is given by the author when he states, âMore than any other English dictionary, it abounds with stories, arcane information, home truths, snippets of trivia, and lost myths. It is, in short, a treasure house.â
For many years, lexicographers in England and the United States have borrowed, sometimes verbatim, the definitions introduced by Samuel Johnson.
I can recommend this book for those who want an introduction to Johnson as well as to those who have already found him to be a remarkable topic for study.
