To The Hebrides: Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands and James Boswell's Journal of a Tour [Paperback]

Johnson and Boswell chart a transformative voyage through Scotlands western islands, revealing social upheaval, humor, and lasting cultural insight.Samuel Johnsons Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswells 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 mens starkly contrasting accounts of each of the thirteen stages of the journey. He also restores to Boswells 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 Boswells 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.Samuel Johnson and James Boswell spent the autumn of 1773 touring through the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland as far west as the islands of Skye, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Inchkenneth and Iona. Here, they paint a picture of a society which was still almost unknown to the Europe of the Enlightenment.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'It is always pleasurable when a reviewer can recommend a book unreservedly. Congratulations to Ronald Black and Birlinn, To the Hebl#Q