Book description
By 1700, France and Italy already had dictionaries of their own, and it
became a matter of national pride that England should rival them. Dr
Johnson rose to the challenge, turning over the garret of his London
home to the creation of his Dictionary. He imagined it would take three
years. Eight years later it was finally published, full of
idiosyncrasies, but complete nevertheless. It would become the most
important British cultural monument of the eighteenth century.
This is the story of Johnson's attempt to define each and every word.
In wonderfully engaging chapters, Hitchings describes Johnson's
adventure - his ambition and vision, his moments of despair, the
mistakes he made along the way and his ultimate triumph.
'This is a
delightful book about an extraordinary man. I suspect Dr Johnson
himself would have approved . . . and there's no greater praise than that'
Henry Hitchings was born in 1974. He is the author of The Secret Life
of Words, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Who's Afraid of Jane
Austen?, Dr Johnson's Dictionary and The Language Wars. He has
contributed to many newspapers and magazines and is theatre critic for
the London Evening Standard.
