| Samuel
Johnson
"The Vanity of Human Wishes" |
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Like Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson faced life with an assortment of physical
and personal handicaps to overcome. He suffered from scrofula as a child,
which left him disfigured and partially deaf. He also apparently suffered
from Tourette's Syndrome, the affliction characterized by uncontrollable verbal
and physical outbursts. He entered Oxford University, but he had to leave after
his first term because of his family's financial problems. With no degree
but considerable self-taught knowledge, he married a woman much older (but with
some capital) and set up his own school (which eventually failed). He ended up
going to London to become a professional writer, and became well-known (if not
financially successful). Johnson's greatest accomplishment was the creation of the first systematic
modern English dictionary--A Johnson was immortalized by one of the most important biographies ever written--James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. As you read "The Vanity of Human Wishes," recognize that it is both an objective meditation on ambition and a personally significant work that seeks to find a way of coming to terms with the adversities of his life.
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Dictionary
of the English Language--which earned him an honorary doctorate from his old
alma mater, Oxford University, and solidified his fame and influence as a
literary and cultural figure.