ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Johnson's attempts, through the narrative construction of the Lives, to negotiate challenges and to acknowledge if not resolve the moral, theological, and existential questions that they raise. A useful starting point for such an analysis is Johnson's own Dictionary definition of coherence: The texture of a discourse, by which one part follows another regularly and naturally. The "Life of William Collins" is organized around his poverty, mental "disorder", and the twists of fortune and misfortune that befell him. Johnson was famously the subject of numerous anecdotes, but read, recommended, and collected them himself. In historiographical studies the anecdote “has always stood in close relation to the longer, more elaborate narratives of history, sometimes in supportive role, as examples and illustrations, sometimes in a challenging role, as the repressed of history – “la petite histoire”. Incomplete, it consists only of a scene set at Bolt Court in which the characters reflect on the nature and meaning of death.
