The Life of Samuel Johnson

From September to November 1775, Johnson goes on a tour of France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This trip is notable as the only time Johnson ever traveled to the Continent or outside Great Britain. Although Johnson and Boswell discuss other travel plans, such as going to the Baltic countries and even to Iceland, and although Johnson later plans to go to Italy with the Thrales, these plans will not come about.

Johnson’s trip in France is detailed through Johnson’s letters and journal entries, which Boswell reproduces. He goes to Versailles, to Paris, and to monasteries and convents, among other sites. Johnson looks at the trip as a chance to improve his knowledge of the French language, of which he has good literary knowledge but lacks speaking practice. Johnson later says that he finds the French an uncouth and coarse people and sites their habit of spitting on the floor.

Johnson’s sole trip abroad illustrates the fact that in the 18th century an intellectual could gain fame without being widely traveled; the exchange of information very often happened by way of books and correspondence. Throughout this section, Boswell makes use of the diaristic or travelogue