SOURCE: "'Casts a Kind of Glory Round It': Metaphor and The Life of Johnson," in Boswell: Citizen of the World, Man of Letters, edited by Irma S. Lustig, pp. 158-83. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995.

In this essay, Yarrow analyzes Boswell's use of metaphor in the Life of Johnson, claiming that it reveals Boswell's effort to originate metaphors and maximize their use.

The greatest thing in style is to have a command of metaphor. This power cannot be acquired; it is a mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances.

Aristotle, The Poetics

The Life of Johnson is a great sprawling masterpiece of biographical information and observation, unexpectedly engaging and lifelike. Critics, almost unanimous in their assessment of the work's enduring value, have taken great pains to account for both its vividness and its longevity—the "life," the "liveliness," the "living quality" of...