The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia
by Samuel Johnson 2021-01-19 22:26:28
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Simply written, funny, and compulsively readable, this fine little book has been heralded as one of the finest examples of English prose and offers a compelling glimpse of Samuel Johnson's moral views. Dashed out over the course of a single week to p... Read more
Simply written, funny, and compulsively readable, this fine little book has been heralded as one of the finest examples of English prose and offers a compelling glimpse of Samuel Johnson's moral views. Dashed out over the course of a single week to pay for his mother's funeral, Johnson's only novel was the outcome of a lifetime's thoughts and experiences.
A philosophical romance tracing the pilgrimage of an African prince and his companions to Egypt, Rasselas ponders a number of subjects -- romantic love, flights of imagination, the great discoveries of science, and speculations about the meaning of happiness -- all of which, Johnson implies, encourage man with false hopes and unrealistic estimates of what life has to offer.
Directed specifically against eighteenth-century optimism and, more generally, against all simple formulas for achieving happiness, Rasselas has often been compared with Voltaire's Candide -- which was published only a few weeks before Johnson's work. Both novels have deservedly attained the status of classics. Less
  • File size
  • Print pages
  • Publisher
  • Publication date
  • Language
  • ISBN
  • 7.44 X 9.69 X 0.25 in
  • 120
  • BiblioLife
  • June 10, 2010
  • English
  • 9780486440941
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayi...
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