Readable, engrossing, sometimes amusing - a classic read. ( )

Johnson's journal needs no comment or critique. All the man's writings are justly classic, even those that are sorely dated. Boswell's journal, of course, is chiefly of interest as it captures Johnson. The great biographer is sometimes tempted to digress, but all in all the Journal makes an essential adjunct to The Life. ( )

I read this as part of pre-trip anticipation for a similar trip, and it was interesting to compare it with my own impressions of the highlands and islands. My overall rating of four stars is a split-vote, though. Samuel Johnson's prose reveals a scintillating intellect and original observer. Even when he is wrong, sometimes pig-headedly so, as when he insists that Gaelic (he calls it Erse) was in Scotland a purely oral language until shortly before his own time, he is interesting to read. He shares with Mark Twain an ability to build an argument throughout a long paragraph and then surprise and delight the reader at the very last with the way he turns it.
Boswell's prose on the other hand made me picture him as a status-conscious, obsequious, hypocritical prig. I wondered throughout if Jane Austen used it as a model for the speech of Mr Collins, the stuffy vicar in the employ of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Where Boswell records the same incidents as Johnson, one is struck by how well Johnson is able to select what to record. Yet I stuck with Boswell to the end because of what he records of Johnson's table talk, and this was rewarding. Highly recommended, particularly Johnson's part. ( )

Marvelous preface by Chapman.

I give it five stars because it is a beautiful book written by a couple of interesting people and gives excellent accounts of places I've never been. Learning new things always makes me happy. ( )

Price in pounds

The two diarists Dr Johnson (he of Dictionary fame) and James Boswell recount their voyage (taken in the late 18th century) from Edinburgh to around the Hebrides and back. So firstly it's Dr Johnson's "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland", which in some ways was an easier read for me, in that it was an account of the places they went to and selected people they met (see later on for Boswell's focus, which was less what I was hoping for). There was one passage near the beginning where they are travelling north of Aberdeen where he talks of being told of a previous weather event where the sand dunes were deposited inland and the landowner ended up giving up his land rather than pay to sort it out. That was interesting to me as I am pretty sure that is the same place where Donald Trump has built his highly-contested and locally unpopular golf course, where he thinks that he can control the sand dunes. Other than that, my main impression of Dr Johnson was that he could be quite bitchy, and there was a fair bit of English superiority coming across, even in the many passages where he was obviously appreciative of the hospitality he was being shown. There was also a lot of approval of the feudal system and aristocracy/royalty which I really don't like. I think what didn't help was that the image in my head of Dr Johnson is entirely based on his appearance in an episode of "Blackadder the Third", so it was sometimes hard to take it seriously! After that I read Boswell's "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides", which I found much harder to read. Unlike Johnson's account, which was based on places, Boswell's was just a daily account, and he mainly seemed to write about the contents of conversations, regardless of whether they were relevant to the places they were visiting that day. So I did a lot of skim-reading of this one. He also seemed, like Johnson, pretty approving of status/aristocracy, but the really overwhelming impression was of his utter reverence of Dr Johnson, so I found that quite difficult, that he was praising this man for saying stuff to his hosts which I often considered quite rude! This focus just cemented the "Blackadder the Third" character as the Dr Johnson in my head! Even though I was skim-reading, it didn't make this particular account go any quicker! It was just quite hard work, I found - I had to skim, but still look frequently to see if the conversation had stopped and he had actually put in a few sentences about the place they were visiting (which was what I wanted to read!). Overall, I'm really pleased I've read both of these, but I'm not sure I'll be rushing to read them again. ( )

Samuel 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. ( )

The 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. ( )

For a brief overview see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Journey_to_the_Western_Islands_of_Scotland - A charming and fascinating account of traveling through Scotland when it was still "primitive" (in parts) - this is what Johnson went to see, but he laments they came "too late" .. Scotland was already changing quickly. But they did find some of the "Old Scotland"

It is not only a travel narrative but intermixed with social criticism on issues of education in Scotland, religion and other issues of the day related to the progress of the country.

Parts that are memorable include the monastic ruins at Iona, the trip through the Isle of Skye along the tops of ridges with no roads, the story of the imprisoned Scotsman given salted beef and an empty glass and left to die, the one story stone huts, and 2-story stone "houses", the caves along the coasts.

Even though it is a short book I would like to create an abridged version that removes the social commentary (now largely outdated) and sticks to the travel and site seeing only which is the highlite of the book. ( )