The Life of Samuel Johnson – James Boswell

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."

James Boswell provides an intimate, exhaustive, and entertaining portrait of his friend Samuel Johnson, the great 18th-century lexicographer, wit, and moralist. Through detailed conversations, letters, and anecdotes, Boswell captures Johnson's immense intellect, his melancholia, his kindness, and his legendary conversational powers.

Boswell's work is widely considered the greatest biography in the English language. It invented the modern biography by focusing on the private man as well as the public figure, preserving for eternity the voice and personality of one of literature's most fascinating characters.