Latches, Not Buckles

See the June/July issue of Policy Review for Henrik Bering’s “The Ultimate Literary Portrait,” an essay on James Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Bering is not a graceful writer and he presents no new information for seasoned readers of Johnson and Boswell, but the piece is a useful reminder of the unlikely creation of the greatest biography in the language:

“Elsewhere Boswell had frequently complained about the inadequacy of words in conveying our impressions: `Words cannot describe our feelings. The finer parts are lost, as the down upon a plum.’ And he had expressed his intense envy of painters and their medium: `With how small a speck does a painter give life to an eye.’ What he particularly admired were the Flemish painters, with their almost photographic attention to detail, mapping out the wrinkles of a face or the folds and embroideries of a piece of clothing.

“Translated to the realm of the written word, this means a search for the characteristic detail in a person’s manner of speech, his gestures or way of walking. As Boswell had learned from Adam Smith, whose lectures he had attended in Glasgow, the reader takes pleasure in knowing tiny details about great men, like say, the fact that Milton wore latches instead of buckles on his shoes.”