Hi - I'm Chris Whiley. My main interests have always included 18th century English literature and, in particular, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. I'm a member of the Johnson Society(Lichfield). Check out as well the Johnson Society of London.

I've decided to start off by offering a range of links, plus commentary, to sites related to James Boswell, as, on the Net at least, he's the neglected one in the duo. I'll also be putting up a shortish, but fairly comprehensive biography and bibliography. If you find this useful, let me know what else you'd like to see.

Just click the picture after you've read the brief summary if you want to visit the site.

1. Links to some bibliographies and citations pulled together as part of the Malaspina Great Books project. But beware, they don't all work and other James Boswells are included

   Back to top

2. The James Boswell Institute, part of Utrecht University, where JB studied law in the Winter of 1763/64. The background is a nice picture of him (which I am using as my background as well, so a big thank you to them), but so far as I can tell none of the courses are remotely connected with him or his times

   Back to top

3. An extract from Boswell's journal dealing with his visit to Ferney to meet Voltaire (Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764, entry for Monday 24 December). Links to some nice contemporary prints of Voltaire

   Back to top

4. A small part of a huge site mainly devoted to listing all kinds of people, run by Hugh Winters in New Zealand. It sets out to be a concordance of the names mentioned in Boswell's journals! It covers "London", "In Search of a Wife" and some of the "Life of Johnson" so far. Remarkable, especially as Mr. Winters claims not to like JB much

   Back to top

5. The world's best Christmas present! Complete works of Johnson and Boswell on CD-Rom

   Back to top

6. An interesting, and sympathetic article by Stanton Peele about Boswell's drinking and its effects on him and attitudes to him.

   Back to top

7. Brief biography and picture. Part of an excellent site about Edinburgh; a town which, if you have not done so already, you should visit as soon as possible

   Back to top

8. Details of the very wonderful (if pricey) Yale Editions of the Boswell Papers, plus some interesting links, not all of which are completed yet

   Back to top

   Next two sites from Thomas Kinsella, on the faculty of Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, who's got a lot of interesting 18C and other material organised within his parent site

9. First, around an imagined meeting between two 'sons of Ayrshire', Boswell and Burns, are extracts from the works of both men, some pictures and an interesting essay on the development of dialogue in 18C literature

   Back to top

10. And second a miscellany of exchanges with and between, I assume, his students on a variety of topics, many about JB and SJ

    Back to top

11. Last at present - Jack Lynch, the cynosure of 18C literature studies on the Net, is gradually putting the whole of the 'Life of Johnson', including notes, on-line. So far, he's up to 1763, so a long way to go!

    Back to top

Email me at chris.whiley@cableinet.co.uk.
Site last edited on 1 February 99

This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page