James Boswell, Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides

Ian McGowan (University of Stirling)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1785

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing

Resources

In 1773 James Boswell, using his social connections to procure invitations from clan chiefs and Edinburgh literati, finally persuaded the elderly Samuel Johnson to make a three-month tour up the east coast of Scotland, via Aberdeen and Inverness to Skye, Mull and other islands, to Boswell's ancestral home at Auchinleck, and back to Edinburgh, which he duly reported in contemporary newspapers. Boswell's original journal, rediscovered in 1930, is as usual less concerned with place – important towns such as Inverness and Aberdeen are hardly described – than with objects suggestive of antiquity or Gaelic feudal life, stories of the Second Sight; the romantic Hebridean scenes that would enrapture nineteenth-century travellers provoke …

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487 words

Citation: McGowan, Ian. "Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4347, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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