The Club

Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age

By: Leo Damrosch

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Prize-winning biographer Leo Damrosch tells the story of "the Club", a group of extraordinary writers, artists, and thinkers who gathered weekly at a London tavern.

In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club".

In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters. With the friendship of the "odd couple" Samuel Johnson and James Boswell at the heart of his narrative, Damrosch conjures up the precarious, exciting, and often brutal world of late 18th-century Britain. This is the story of an extraordinary group of people whose ideas helped to shape their age - and our own.

©2019 Leo Damrosch (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The rise and fall of brilliant men

For literary snobs who revel in the English language
Collateral gain. A powerful look at English life for the privileged and less so in the 18th century

Entertains and informative

This is a well research book by a Harvard professor and I ration is wonderful and breaks into a Scottish accent highly recommended

Let me introduce you to some fascinating people.

I enjoyed getting to know a bit about people I had heard of and knew by name and a few I had never heard of. I love biography and have since read several books about Samuel Johnson and even more about James Boswell, who is a fascinating character (and I do mean character). I liked the history you learn as well.

Informative and entertaining.

I enjoyed this book very much. While not exhaustive, it is an enjoyable overview of this amazing group people.

Wonderful visit to the literary past

By intertwining the mini biographies of his main characters, Professor Damrosch has given us deep insight into the literary past. The characters come alive in discussions and conversations and we learn plenty of interesting facts along the way. For instance, most people in the 18th Century did not how to swim.