{"product_id":"9780007362837_johnson-on-savage-the-life-of-mr-richard-savage-by-samuel-johnson","title":"Johnson on Savage: The Life of Mr Richard Savage by Samuel Johnson","description":"\u003cp\u003eLives that Never Grow Old\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart of a radical series –edited by Richard Holmes – that recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Johnson’s book is a biographical masterpiece, still thrilling to read and vividly alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen he first came to London, young Samuel Johnson was befriended by the flamboyant poet, playwright and blackmailer, Richard Savage. Walking the backstreets at night, he learned Savage’s extraordinary story – supposedly persecuted by a ‘cruel mother’, sentenced to death for a murder in a brothel, appointed Volunteer Poet Laureate to the Queen, and finally broken and outcast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith this moving and intimate account, Johnson created a brilliant black comedy of 18th-century Grub Street which revolutionised English biography by its psychological realism. Yet Savage’s destructive charm and delusions of grandeur sometimes even threatened to entangle Johnson himself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Richard Holmes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47284951122069,"sku":"9780007362837","price":9.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007362837.png?v=1776992194","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007362837_johnson-on-savage-the-life-of-mr-richard-savage-by-samuel-johnson","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}