This is the first comprehensive treatment of Johnson and Boswell in relation to Scotland, as revealed in their respective accounts of their trip to the Hebrides in 1773, the Journey to the Western Islands and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. Locating the Scottish Journey both within the context of travel writing in the decade of Cook's Pacific voyages, and in an intellectual, cultural, and literary context, Pat Rogers' new interpretation of the writers' famous accounts describes the 'Grand Detour' which the travellers made in opposition to the standard Grand Tour expectations.
Johnson and Boswell: The Transit of Caledonia suggests a reason why Johnson undertook his long-planned visit in old age, and explores the relation between his Journey and the letters he wrote to Hester Thrale. Boswell's complex motives in making the tour are also explored, including his divided views concerning his Scottish identity, and his desire at a concealed level to replay the heroic venture of Prince Charles Edward thirty years before. Setting the journey in the context of anti-Scottish feeling in the period, the book relates the themes and motifs of the two narratives to the background of the Scottish Enlightenment on such issues as emigration and primitivism, and offers fresh readings of the major surveys by Johnson and Boswell of Scotland after the Jacobite risings.
Industry Reviews
`Among many other issues, the Boswell-Johnson adventure has never been seen as clearly before as Rogers has now revealed it.'
Times Literary Supplement
`clever and lively book'
English Language Notes
`Rogers is one of our best critics ... 'Scholarly' can be a synonym for 'deadly dull', but one sometimes forgets the genuine gratification to be had in being enlightened and educated by real experts.'
William Boyd, The Observer
`clever and original study...Roger's discussion of these connections is a sophisticated and rewarding one.'
London Review of Books
`Pat Rogers encompasses the panorama of Johnson and Boswell's relation with Scotland, and offers us a deeper insight into the accounts both men left of their historic tour...a fascinating account of where Scotland stood at this time of great change...The book is a rewarding commentary on the accounts Dr Johnson and Boswell wrote of their transit of Scotland, and for Scots it offers an illuminating insight into this glorious period.'
The New Rambler
`A study of the intellectual and cultural mileau of Johnson and Boswell's tour of the Hebrides in 1773... in every instance the book is provocative and deepens our appreciation of this famous jaunt considerably... this... absorbing book.'
Henry L. Fulton, Studies in Scottish Literature
`Rogers has given us an entirely satisfying and thought-provoking study of two fascinating men and their travel books. He has shared generously with us his great learning and deep insight. Above all, he has dressed his thoughts in a lucid and engaging style of writing which makes his book a great pleasure to read.'
Lars Hartveit, English Studies, Volume 77, Number 3, May 1996
`Waingrow's edition is a treasure-trove of previously hidden detail, rich in implication for our understanding of the Life of Johnson, of Boswell, and of the late eighteenth century in general. Pat Rogers's deft and gracious collection of studies of the tour the two men made to Scotland can in this respect be seen as a companion volume to Waingrow. In what has become a hectic battle-ground of charge and counter-charge, few have written with Rogers's wit and
psychological insight, and fewer still have hit upon a formulation which catches better Johnson's involvement with dynastic politics than the notion of him as a 'secret sharer' in Jacobitism.'
David Womersley, Jesus College, Oxford, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVIII, No. 189, Feb '97
