THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON BY J. BOSWELL AS TRANSLATED BY YU. D. LEVIN

The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell turned out to be the last translation of Yu. D. Levin. This work is held in high esteem both by the writer’s compatriots and by all the students of English cultural history. The major part of the translation has been preserved, the work was to be incorporated into the fundamental three-volume edition of Johnson’s works Biographies of the Renowned English Poets and Critical Reviews of their Works (Moscow, 2023), prepared by N. I. Reyngold and T. A. Gu revich for the Literary Monuments series. Boswell’s work is important for analyzing the genre of biography and autobiography both in the European and Russian literature. The translation begins with Boswell’s description of Johnson’s early years and ends with the description of his meeting with King George III in 1767. The text was annotated by N. I. Reyngold who had supplied the edition with copious notes. The poems by Johnson in Yu. D. Levin’s translations are included into the commentaries that introduce the reader to various versions of the texts. Yu. D. Levin’s transliterations of the names of the English writers, based on the Russian 18^th-century tradition, have been preserved.

J. Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, Yu. D. Levin, translation theory and practices, Russo-English literary ties, history of literary studies