The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Boswell, by William Keith Leask

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Title: James Boswell
Famous Scots Series

Author: William Keith Leask

Release Date: August 5, 2009 [EBook #29615]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES BOSWELL ***

Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed
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JAMES
BOSWELL

FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES

_The following Volumes are now ready:_--

THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson.
ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton.
HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask.
JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes.
ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun.
THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie.
RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless.
SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson.
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie.
JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask.

[Illustration:

JAMES
BOSWELL

BY
W KEITH
LEASK

FAMOUS
.SCOTS.
.SERIES.

PUBLISHED BY
OLIPHANT ANDERSON
& FERRIER. EDINBURGH
AND LONDON

]

* * * * *

The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr Joseph Brown, and the
printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh.

* * * * *

~To~

GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL,
D.C.L.;
M.A. Pembroke (Johnson's) College, Oxford;

CHIEF OF JOHNSON SCHOLARS AND EDITORS;
AND HIMSELF MOST "CLUBABLE" OF MEN.

* * * * *

PREFACE

The literature of the Johnsonian period has assumed, in spite of the
lexicographer's own dislike of that adjective, prodigious dimensions.
After the critical labours of Malone, Murphy, Croker, J. B. Nichols,
Macaulay, Carlyle, Rogers, Fitzgerald, Dr Hill and others, it may appear
hazardous to venture upon such a well-ploughed field where the pitfalls
are so numerous and the materials so scattered. I cannot, however,
refrain from the expression of the belief that in this biography of
Boswell will be found something that is new to professed students of the
period, and much to the class of general readers that may lead them to
reconsider the verdict at which they may have arrived from t