To The Hebrides
Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands and James Boswell's Journal of a Tour
James Boswell author Samuel Johnson author Ronald Black editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Birlinn General
Published:18th Jul '11
Should be back in stock very soon
Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides are widely regarded as among the best pieces of travel writing ever produced. Johnson and Boswell spent the autumn of 1773 touring Scotland as far west as the islands of Skye, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Ulva, Inchkenneth and Iona. Highly readable, often profound, and at times very funny, their accounts of the ‘jaunt’ are above all a valuable record of a society undergoing rapid change.
In this pioneering new edition, Ronald Black brings together the two men’s starkly contrasting accounts of each of the thirteen stages of the journey. He also restores to Boswell’s text 20,000 words from his journal which were denied entry to his book because they were intimate, defamatory, or about the islands rather than Johnson. The endnotes incorporate Boswell’s footnotes, translations of Latin passages, a clear summary of pre-existing information on the two texts, and a fresh focus on what the two men actually found on their trip. To the Hebrides also includes contemporary prints by Thomas Rowlandson, seventeen new maps and a comprehensive index.
'Their shifting view of some events is often hilarious. The story should be of particular interest to the many Canadians with Scots ancestry (as it is to this Welshman, who has none) and, best of all as a reminder of English as She Should be Writ, but Alas No Longer Is'
* Toronto Globe and Mail *'It is always pleasurable when a reviewer can recommend a book unreservedly. Congratulations to Ronald Black and Birlinn, To the Hebrides is a stunning achievement'
* Northwords Now *'Literature has never divised a better act than these two'
* Sunday Herald *'Do we really need another book about Boswell and Johnson's Highland journey? Yes, when it's this one'
-- Roger Hutchinson * The ScotsmISBN: 9781780270319
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 46mm
Weight: 588g
640 pages