Johnson and Boswell in the Hebrides

In this episode, we return to the friendship between Samuel Johnson and James Boswell by focusing on a trip the pair made to Scotland. Both authors wrote about their trip in quite different ways.

Johnson’s book has a rational, almost anthropological take on their journey.
While Boswell’s writing about Johnson fascinated and repelled readers in the eighteenth century because he blurred the distinction between public and private life.

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See the books

A journey to the western islands of Scotland, 1775.

This book is about the journey Samuel Johnson and James Boswell took through the islands of the Hebrides, in Scotland, in the late summer and autumn of 1773. Johnson records and comments on many elements of Highland culture.

​Samuel Johnson. A journey to the western islands of Scotland, 1775 See record in catalogue.

A journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, 1807.

Adam Sisman describes the writing in this book as “full of gossip and humour, enjoyable most of all because of the interplay between the writer and the companion, indeed much of the fun of Boswell’s journal is from his own presence in the story.”

James Boswell. A journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, 1807. See record in catalogue.

A late voyage to St Kilda, 1698

Martin Martin's account of his voyage to St. Kilda is a classic of Scottish topography. This map of St Kilda includes an auxiliary map of islands in the Outer Hebrides and has some pictorial elements.

Martin Martin. A late voyage to St Kilda, 1698. Click to see in detail on Kura Heritage Collections Online.

You may also like

Samuel Johnson. A journey to the western islands of Scotland, 1775, and James Boswell. A journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, 1807 [eBook]

Kura Heritage Collections Online

• [Selected pages from] A late voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hebrides, or Western Isles of Scotland
• [Preface and selected pages from] A dictionary of the English language - Vol 1
  
• [Selected pages from] A dictionary of the English language - Vol 2
  
• [Preface to] The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.