A terrific group portrait.
I literally just finished this excellent book. The two main characters in it are are Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. The titular Club was actually founded by painter Joshua Reynolds, to get Johnson out of one of his regular depressions. Boswell wouldn’t be invited to join for quite some time.
More than a history of The Club, this is really a group portrait of figures in the Johnson Boswell orbit, and of the places and times they lived in. It’s heavily illustrated, which is great, really adding several layers of warmth and depth to what is already interesting, helping one imagine the characters and the settings of their lives more vividly.
Damrosch clearly loves the whole era, and the great majority of the colourful cast. But this doesn’t stop him from giving a balanced portrait, warts and all, so to speak. Johnson is a cranky conservative prude, as well as the witty savant behind his famous dictionary. Boswell is an inordinately vain womaniser, in thrall to Johnson, and both are in many ways unattractively hidebound and old-fashioned.
But the chief attraction of this book is that it vividly and compellingly captures the multifarious facets of a kaleidoscopic era, populated by a diverse bunch of very interesting (if frequently flawed) people. And it does so with equal measures of detail, balance and excitement, such that it’s both very informative and highly enjoyable.
It’s perfect for me, as a way to start to learn more about a whole slew of folk I’m interested in, from Johnson and Boswell, to Adam Smith and Edward Gibbons, and many more besides. It’s pitched in the sweet spot between scholarly and suited for the lay reader. I loved this book, and would unhesitatingly recommend it.
Sounds like another one to add to the list!
Ha ha! Yeah, I reckon it’s worth a read.