SOURCE: "Boswell's Notes toward a Supreme Fiction: From London Journal to Life of Johnson," in Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 149-63. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.

In the essay that follows, Bell considers Boswell's London Journal to be a groundbreaking work in the development of the first-person factual narrative. He commends in particular Boswell's use of personal experience as a means of establishing his literary persona.

Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763 reveals a great deal about the author's youthful struggles and tumultuous season in the city. As a vivid, intimate autobiographical record, the journal is unsurpassed; it is also a work of distinct literary artistry. Boswell affirms at the outset both his authenticity and artistic sensibility: "I shall here put down my thoughts on different subjects at different times, the whims that may seize me and the sallies of my luxuriant imagination. I...