Community and Solitude

"An invaluable, erudite, thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to the study of Samuel Johnson's life, philosophy, and literary work, Community and Solitude: New Essays on Johnson's Circle is an extraordinary body of informative and deftly scripted scholarship."

— Midwest Book Review

"As a monograph designed for considering the historical interconnectedness in readings of literature, history, and culture, Community and Solitude, part of Bucknell University Press's Transits series, accomplishes its goal with welcome fidelity."

— The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats

"The book uses...discussions to provide an engaging illustration of time, place, and character for a wide audience. For scholars who know Boswell’s biography and eighteenth-century London well, the book offers primarily a useful synthesis of biographies and cultural history."

— Eighteenth-Century Fiction

"These essays, well presented in this volume by Bucknell University Press, bring context, color, and an array of information that should prove of value to students and scholars of Johnson’s expansive circle."

— Eighteenth-Century Studies

"The scholarship is of a consistently high level, and the prose is clear and well edited. Community and Solitude provides a salutary reminder that authorship is not always the solitary activity that many people assume. Recommend." 

— Choice

"Lee, as editor, sets out to counterbalance Johnson’s need for solitude to accomplish his literary works with his at times almost desperate search for company to alleviate his periods of despair and disillusion. How could someone with such a sociable character and love of conversation succeed in creating such a corpus of work that within its pages we can find epithets suitable for most occasions in life?"

— The New Rambler

"This volume of essays advances the field not only because it focuses on a new topic but also because of the patient and imaginative analysis in the various essays. The audience here extends beyond Johnsonians because so many other figures of interest are included, from Frances Burney, Burke, Warton, Seward, and Arthur Murphy to Goldsmith and of course Boswell."

— Steven Lynn, University of South Carolina

"This collection of ten essays begins with three solid essays, all making good use of correspondence."

— Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer