A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Written by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell
Narrated by Alexander Spencer and Patrick Tull
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) was an English writer – a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. His works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, an influential annotated edition of Shakespeare's plays, and the widely read tale Rasselas, the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, and most notably, A Dictionary of the English Language, the definitive British dictionary of its time.
More audiobooks from Samuel Johnson
The History of Rasselas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Favourite Essays: An Anthology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Related audiobooks
Rob Roy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life of Johnson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5London Journal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pickwick Papers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph Andrews Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allan Quatermain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waverley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life of Samuel Johnson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diary of Samuel Pepys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Amateur Emigrant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brief Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poetry of the 17th Century - Volume 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ivanhoe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lady of the Lake Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarnaby Rudge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5B. J. Harrison Reads Ivanhoe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Notes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of the Alhambra Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woodlanders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lord Jim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island of Sheep Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mayor of Casterbridge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rural Rides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Travels of Marco Polo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Years Before The Mast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Brown's Schooldays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scenes of Clerical Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prelude Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Biographies For You
The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Bondage and My Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
66 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I liked best this book when it described the beginning of the journey in the Highlands. But Johnson's verbosity was a bit tiring afterwards, & I kept looking to the number of pages left. I found interesting Johnson's describing the highlanders just as first encounters with tribes in Papua New Guinea were described afterwards. They even carried with them small gifts for the locals which were benevolently distributed.Emphatic as he was, Johnson aroused sufficient interest in me to making me want to put my steps one day in his' & Boswell's in the small islands they visited off Mull.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fascinating account by Johnson of his trip through Scotland with Boswell (who also wrote up an account).Full of information about the life and times of the Highlands in the late 1700s. Insights like the fact that the lack of roads meant that the may not have been a single wheeled vehicle for transporting goods in the entire highlands of that era!Read May 2017
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Samuel Johnson being the creator of the first English dictionary, I expected this journal to be a challenging and thorough chronicle. At least to begin with it seems surprisingly the contrary, sparse in general descriptions and more often fastening onto some specific detail or aspect (local education, the clergy, etc.) I also found it to be full of platitudes. Once he gets to the isles, his real destination of interest, he becomes much more thorough. Johnson's story is rather dry but there were interesting bits to glean throughout every so many pages: one standout was his commentary on ruins that pass into nothing, after which all is forgotten - a troubling note in a journal written in the 1770s. The British disarmed Scotland after Culloden and Johnson provides enough coverage of the results to give anti-gun lobbyists a good lead. He journeys past Loch Ness with not a mention of the monster (no one "saw it" until 1933), but describes the Second Sight and other local legends.I enjoyed following his journey with an atlas (although I can't seem to google up a reliable image that traces the route), and if I lived in the area I'd be tempted to follow at least a portion of his steps and see the contrast with today.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The first book by Johnson was good the second by Boswell was better, at least more humourous, with the recording of the sayings of Johnson. I thought it was fascinating to travel with these two gentleman during the time when there were no trains and tours were pretty well rustic. The time in which they travelled too, when Scotland or Old Scotland was disappearing, and the peaceful and the more refined Scotland we know today was taking its place.