Book excerpt: In this provocative and incisive book the author re-examines Samuel Johnson's major texts, focusing on his famous review of Soame Jenyns's A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil as a principal source of insight and innovation. He offers a lucid exposition of its ideas and methods, defining for the first time its relation to an important strand in eighteenth-century intellectual history, and assessing its implications for Johnson's moral vision. Hinnant's book will be an indispensable guide for anyone interested in understanding what is most modern in Johnson's thought and writings.