Buchara state university m. Bakoeva, E. Muratova, M. Ochilova english literature

Johnson’s literary achievements are remarkable. His “Dictio­
nary of the English Language” (1755) is noted for its scholarly
definitions o f words and the use o f excellent quotations to illus­
trate the definitions. No one has equaled him in describing clearly
to the English people what the words in their language really mean.
In his “The Lives of the English Poets” (1779-1781) Johnson
critically examined the work of 52 poets from Cowley to Gray
and did much to establish literaiy criticism as a form of literature.
Johnson also wrote articles, reviews, essays, and two satires,
“London” (173 8) and “The Vanity o f Human Wi shes” (1749) show
what his powerful mind, his grave moral outlook and his incisive
phrasing could achieve. His prose work “Rasselas” (1759), though
nominally an Abyssinian narrative, employs the story only for the
philosophical argument, which is a trenchant attack on people who
seek an easy path to happiness, actually an attack upon eigh­
teenth-century optimism.
Johnson’s friends (The Johnson circle) were the most important
writers of the late 1700s. They included Oliver Goldsmith; Edmund
Burke, who stood high in the councils o f the nation. Burke’s main
work is to be found in a series o f political pamphlets, mainly
delivered in the form of speeches. Burke in his prose a ways has
the spoken word in mind, and, though he argues closely, he has
the audience in view. This contact with the audience gave him the
eloquence and the passion which entered into some o f his best-
known passages (“On American Taxation”, 1774, “On Conciliation
with the Colonies”, 1775), Burke’s oratoiy became a part of English
history. Special tribute should be given to Johnson’s biographer,