[.ca] The Journals of James Boswell: 1762-1795 (ISBN 0300060742)

One of the best biographies ever:
John Wain condenced 17 volumes of autobiography into this taught, energetic, flowing narrative. I was captivated!

A look inside the mind of an engaging scoundrel:
James Boswell has been called everything from an engaging gentleman to a vicious scoundrel. A true man of his times, Boswell combined naivete with crudity, tenderness with violence, courtesy with thoughtlessness, enthusiasm with snobbery, true religious feeling with wanton depravity. But how can so many contradictory traits exist alongside each other in the same man? And how does that man see himself? This selection of Boswell's journals attempts to answer that question. Editor John Wain tells Boswell's story in Boswell's words, through excerpts from his journals, letters, legal pleadings, and published writings. We learn about his love life (in some detail), his marriage, his career, his impossible relationship with his domineering Whig father, and his emotional struggles in writing the _Life of Johnson_. We also get a concrete feeling for Boswell's emotional instability, his sense that he would never be good enough for his father (and he was right, unfortunately), and his tremendous guilt over his infidelity. This book is an excellent introduction to James Boswell. I definitely recommend it.