The Lives of the Poets is one of the greatest works of English criticism, but also one of the most diverting. This is the only one-volume paperback edition to make available Johnson's most substantial Lives in unabridged form. Texts are drawn from Roger Lonsdale's authoritative complete edition, and introduced by John Mullan.

Roger Lonsdale was formerly Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. His publications include The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse and Eighteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology
John Mullan teaches at University College London. He is a broadcaster and literary journalist, with a weekly column on fiction for the Guardian newspaper. He has edited Defoe's Roxana for OWC, and is the author of How Novels Work (OUP, 2006) and Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature (Faber, 2007).

• Cowley


• Milton


• Rochester


• Dryden


• Congreve


• Gay


• Savage


• Swift


• Pope


• Gray