Samuel Johnson: Literature, Religion and English Cultural Politics from the Restoration to Romanticism

Book info: Samuel Johnson: Literature, Religion and English Cultural Politics from the Restoration to Romanticism (Hardcover, 288 pages) – Cambridge University Press, 1995. Language: English.

This book offers an analysis of the life and thought of Samuel Johnson from a historian's viewpoint, which reverses the orthodoxy that has dominated the subject for over thirty years. J.C.D. Clark presents here a Johnson strikingly different from the apolitical, pragmatic and eccentric figure who emerges from the pages of most students of English literature. Johnson's commitments and conflicts in religion and politics are reconstructed; his role in the literary dynamics of his age is revealed against a new context for English cultural politics between the Restoration and the age of Romanticism. Editorial Reviews Review 'This is a stimulating and cogent work which offers a refreshing and provocative re-appraisal of some central features of Johnson's life and work.' David Nokes, The Times Literary Supplement Book Description An analysis of the life and thought of the writer Samuel Johnson from an historian's viewpoint.