A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 4.2- Word count
- 324K words
- Chapters
- 33
Tags
English Originals Travel Human GeographyIsland LandscapeTravelogueNatural LandscapesTravel WritingObservational EssayLanguage Style18th Century EnglandRegional CultureScottish FlavorSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland by Samuel JohnsonAuthor: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Feb 1, 2000Editor's review
This is a late-life travelogue by Samuel Johnson, recording his 1773 journey with James Boswell through the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides. Unlike an ordinary guidebook, Johnson, with the force of a lexicographer and moral observer, brings into view rough roads, humble inns, the lives of landowners and tenants, linguistic change, and religious conditions, combining cool social observation with sustained reflection on civilization and barbarism, progress and its costs. The prose is elegant yet sharp, and many passages can be read closely as models of English prose. As a public-domain ebook, it suits readers interested in 18th-century British history, Scottish culture, travel literature, or Johnson himself; reading it slowly in a quiet setting with a map at hand for place names will make it more rewarding.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in 18th-century British society and the history of the Scottish Highlands
- Lovers of classical English prose willing to read slowly and savor it
- Readers studying the travelogue genre or the Johnson-Boswell relationship
- Readers seeking a social-observation perspective on pre-industrial rural life
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting a tightly plotted, highly narrative travel adventure
- Readers needing practical modern travel information and route guides
- Readers with weak English reading skills or unfamiliarity with 18th-century prose style
Reading tips
- Read the opening and closing first to grasp the overall itinerary and the author's attitude, then return to the middle chapters.
- Keep a map of Scotland at hand and check Hebridean place names as you read; this greatly reduces unfamiliarity.
- After each chapter, excerpt one or two passages of commentary to appreciate Johnson's irony and judgment.
- Read alongside Boswell's account of the same journey to experience two tones of the same trip.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
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- 18
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- 27
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- 33
FAQ
Is this book a novel or a travelogue?
It is a travelogue recording what Johnson saw and heard during his 1773 journey with Boswell through the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides, interwoven with social observation and commentary; it is not fictional narrative.Can I understand it without a background in Scottish history?
Yes, but it is advisable first to learn about changes in Highland society after the 18th-century union of Scotland and England, and to check place names as you go; otherwise the point of some commentary is hard to grasp.How difficult is the English version?
It is 18th-century English prose with long sentences and elegant diction, moderately to considerably difficult. Slow down, focus on each paragraph's main point, and do not look up every word.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 AuthorSamuel Johnson (1709–1784) was an influential English writer, critic, and lexicographer. The collection holds 23 of his works, spanning poetry, essays, literary criticism, and dictionary writing. Representative titles include The Vanity of Human Wishes, Two Rambler papers, the multi-volume Lives of the Poets, the Preface to Shakespeare, and the Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language. His writing is known for its eloquent, concise prose and moral seriousness, and he excelled in biographical criticism and literary judgment, leaving a lasting mark on the English essay and critical tradition. Because publicly available information is limited, details of his life are not elaborated here.