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A Date With Signor Gonorrhea: James Boswell's London Journal 1762
Manage episode 493269166 series 3598585
It’s London, 1763 - we're paying a visit to the most fashionable, literary, sexy, filthy, glamorous capital in the world.
The 22 year old James Boswell, born and raised on a large country estate outside Edinburgh, has escaped his ambitious and pushy Presbyterian parents and arrived in London. They want him to follow the family footsteps and become a lawyer. He wants a commission in the guards - which means that he wants to loaf around London in peacetime wearing a smart uniform and getting paid. But more than that, he wants to make a splash – to leave his mark among the great writers and artists of his day.
Boswell will go on to write the "Life of Samuel Johnson," maybe the greatest biography ever written, and the founding text in modern biography. But in 1762 he’s having trouble getting a start on his career. When this journal was discovered hidden away in a house in Aberdeen in the 20th century, the full extent of Boswell’s literary genius was finally understood. The "London Journal" was published to instant notoriety and celebrity, because of Boswell’s tell-all sexual adventures and total frankness about his efforts to make a mark on literature, and his own life.
We see Boswell in company with the most celebrated artists and writers of the day, and we hear about his adventures with his most treasured possession – a reuseable eighteenth-century condom, fabricated from sheeps' intestines.
Books referred to in this episode:
James Boswell, London Journal
James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Samuel Johnson, Johnson’s Dictionary
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets
Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
John Hunter, A Treatise of Venereal Disease
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the Tatler and The Spectator
-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org
-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast
-- Follow us on our socials:
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shorts
insta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/
bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.social
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
71 episodes
Manage episode 493269166 series 3598585
It’s London, 1763 - we're paying a visit to the most fashionable, literary, sexy, filthy, glamorous capital in the world.
The 22 year old James Boswell, born and raised on a large country estate outside Edinburgh, has escaped his ambitious and pushy Presbyterian parents and arrived in London. They want him to follow the family footsteps and become a lawyer. He wants a commission in the guards - which means that he wants to loaf around London in peacetime wearing a smart uniform and getting paid. But more than that, he wants to make a splash – to leave his mark among the great writers and artists of his day.
Boswell will go on to write the "Life of Samuel Johnson," maybe the greatest biography ever written, and the founding text in modern biography. But in 1762 he’s having trouble getting a start on his career. When this journal was discovered hidden away in a house in Aberdeen in the 20th century, the full extent of Boswell’s literary genius was finally understood. The "London Journal" was published to instant notoriety and celebrity, because of Boswell’s tell-all sexual adventures and total frankness about his efforts to make a mark on literature, and his own life.
We see Boswell in company with the most celebrated artists and writers of the day, and we hear about his adventures with his most treasured possession – a reuseable eighteenth-century condom, fabricated from sheeps' intestines.
Books referred to in this episode:
James Boswell, London Journal
James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Samuel Johnson, Johnson’s Dictionary
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets
Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
John Hunter, A Treatise of Venereal Disease
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the Tatler and The Spectator
-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org
-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast
-- Follow us on our socials:
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shorts
insta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/
bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.social
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
71 episodes
All episodes
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