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The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia…
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The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (original 1759; edition 1999)

by Samuel Johnson

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1,740299,856 (3.38)110
I find it hard to believe that a book this good could be written in a week, but the evidence is before me and I have read it. A strange mix of fairy tale, light philosophy and speculum regis. Smooth, unobtrusive writing. He has a way of turning a thought into a phrase that really speaks to you. Don't come to this looking for plot and characterisation.

I read the OUP edition. The notes are geared towards the international market with many definitions of words. If English is your first language you won't need them. ( )
  Lukerik | Aug 2, 2017 |
Showing 1-25 of 29 (next | show all)
This novella is ostensibly a tale about an Ethiopian prince, Rasselas, who, chafing under the boredom of the life of luxury he leads in the Happy Valley, contrives to escape with two companions, his sister Nekayeh, and a man named Imlac. In fact this is a vehicle for Johnson's exploring various philosophical ideas, in particular around the sources of and how to seek happiness in life, including who in society has or might achieve happiness and how, whether through living a good life or not, and what that means. There are some interesting pithy aphorisms arising from their conversations with each other and with other characters, including with a philosopher-astronomer who believes he has the personal power to move the sun and planets. Quite amusing and interesting. ( )
  john257hopper | Feb 23, 2024 |
Johnson’s Bildungsroman is the tale of a bored young Ethiopian prince imprisoned in a “happy valley,” an artificial Eden reserved for progeny of the emperor and their servants and companions.

"The valley, wide and fruitful, supplied its inhabitants with the necessities of life, and all delights and superfluities were added at the annual visit which the emperor paid his children, when the iron gate was opened to the sound of music; and, during eight days, everyone that desired resided in the valley was required to propose whatever might contribute to make seclusion pleasant, to fill up the vacancies of attentions and lessen the tediousness of time. Every desire was immediately granted." (page 8)

Yet Prince Rasselas is bored. He longs for a purpose in life. When told that he is being spared the miseries of the outside world, he yearns to experience them. When he meets Imlac, a poet and world traveler, he begs him to help him escape and be his guide to the outside world so that he can see how others live and
decide on a choice of life. Reluctantly Imlac agrees, and with Rasselas’s sister Nekayah and a small group of attendants they discover a path over the surrounding mountains and out into the world.

They travel north following the course of the Nile to the great metropolis of Cairo. There they meet the active young and the disillusioned old. Rasselas meets a successful man whose happiness is ruined by the death of his daughter, encounters hermits, monks, scholars, and a delusional astronomer. He and his sister try the pastoral life, debate the pros and cons of domesticity and marriage, visit the rich and the great, and explore the pyramids.

During their time inside a pyramid, a band of marauding Arabs kidnap Nekayah’s lady-in-waiting, and favorite Pekuah, and hold her for ransom. When the ransom is paid Pekuah reveals that she had been well treated and reports on life in the castle of the rogue with genteel manners. She finds life among the womenfolk to be lacking in good conversation.

But Rasselas and Nekayah are unable to discover any of these outsiders that have found true happiness, or a way of life that they want to adopt as their own. So having experienced all the outside world has to offer, they decide to return home.

With the precision of language characteristic of the lexicographer, Johnson returns—this time in prose—to the theme of his earlier poem “The Vanity of Human Wishes” to make the point that happiness is not to be found in earthly existence. ( )
  MaowangVater | May 30, 2023 |
Excellent little book and quite an easy read for having been written in the 1750s. Although styled as a novel, it is more a book of philosophy--how to live the good life. Reminiscent of Candide (or of what I remember from high school french class in the mid-1980s). ( )
  wahoo8895 | Nov 20, 2022 |
Nobody reads Johnson anymore except english majors. Which is a shame since while Johnson is disdained for his lack of political correctness in his conservative particulars, his wisdom in generalization is unassailable. Much can be gleaned from his philosophy and general opinions about life and our condition on this mortal coil.

Hence, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia a moral tale if there ever was one. One of the things one has to keep in mind when reading Rasselas is that Johnson is an adherent to the 18th century pre-Romantic notion that writing should be elevating, morality-wise. Therefore, this is a tale of moral opposites in order to not only entertain but teach us something, make us better persons, along the way. Forget this and you are in for a dull and confusing journey.

Prince Rasselas lives in the "Happy Valley," a veritable Garden of Eden, but he is bored by the prospect of unmitigated happiness and yearns to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, so to speak. The prince wants to see life. He feels that happiness is not valued unless the opposite can be obtained and studied. The entire narrative revolves around Rasselas escaping from the Valley along with his sister, the princess, her entourage, and a wise man named Imlac. Along the way various adventures and lessons are learned. It is a no-brainer to see that after years of a taste of life on the outside of their gilded cage they all return to the valley.

Many conceive Rasselas as a children's moral tale but children today would neither understand the language nor have the emotional maturity to understand the philosophy and lessons involved (at one point Johnson takes on the philosopher David Hume). The story does have a 1,001 Nights feel to it. At other times it is like Poor Richard's First Almanac.

If you are into 18th english literature or history, or Johnson in general, you owe it to yourself to read Wrastle-Ass. ( )
1 vote Gumbywan | Jun 24, 2022 |
I expected this to be a quick read. It started out as such but I lost steam about a third into the book. Maybe I was distracted with life or the unusual spellings of words slowed me down. Or perhaps the repeated idea of life being a slog got old.

In short, it is hard work being happy. You have to actively pursue happiness and accept that by focusing on one activity means that other activities will go unpursued.

Another way to describe this is that there is no silver bullet for happiness. You have to work for it and understand the tradeoffs that come with different types of pursuit.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34766 ( )
  Jerry.Yoakum | Jul 30, 2020 |
A passing acquaintance with Samuel Johnson will reveal that the man could write splendidly. He possessed, by all accounts, an unapproachable intellect. His literary works are reminiscent of Voltaire's: witty, erudite, vast, and infinitely readable. His travel accounts and the biography by Boswell are considered paragons of their genre.

Sadly, Rasselas is his only true novel, and it is a short one. The rest of his corpulent corpus was composed of a book-length literary evaluation of Shakespeare's plays, biographies of major poets, an important (in its time) and well-crafted dictionary of the English language, and serial publications, which when compiled, are enjoyable "agony-uncle" style epistolary philosophical tracts. Take almost any sampling of his work, and you are almost guaranteed to be delighted - if you delight in profound insight into the nature of the human soul and its relation to the world. His sentences are complex, daunting, but continually stimulating. Rasselas, more so than The Rambler, is probably the best introduction to his work. It is not exactly a masterpiece, but is is far more interesting, in my opinion, than his plays and poems (the only other things he wrote which can be digested without much effort).

Written for quick money in the space of a week, this charming novella, in the style of Candide or A Voyage to the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac (if that means anything to you), is nonetheless a brilliant morale tale, both timeless and grounded in the atmosphere of Johnson's mind (an intellectual Christian moralist, who sympathized with common folk), even if it takes place in Abyssinia, and various points along the map traversed by its sentimental characters. I found it to be a picaresque read, and enjoyed the analysis of the relative merits of different approaches to life - themes later explored at exhaustive length in The Rambler.

You have the prince, who wishes to experience the world, and who must do so at the expense of the luxury he is entitled to. Of course, he travels in style, sampling temples and lively districts, and encountering unexpected wonders, similarly to Gulliver during his sojourn. It is not a scathing critique and contains very little of a risque nature, as in Voltaire, but that makes it all the more approachable in my mind, and enjoyable to casual readers.

Samuel Johnson is a writer to enjoy over a lifetime, one to study. One of the giants of literary history, comparing him to Voltaire and Goethe is only a slight exaggeration of his powers. His strengths lie in the didactic discussion, which will become readily apparent if you embark on his great later works, which I have been doggy-paddling through slowly for some years, since the Rambler, not to mention the Idler, and his seemingly endless, encyclopedic miscellanies is a daunting task indeed. ( )
1 vote LSPopovich | Apr 8, 2020 |
A short, 95 page book that pondered the meaning of life. This was published in 1761 and it is dated with a lot of scientific mumbo-jumbo. Of course, the ending concluded one was unable to ponder the meaning of life. Had this been much longer than 95 pages, I would not have finished it ( )
  Tess_W | Jul 1, 2019 |
A book that made not a big impression on me. Not good, not bad, not very interesting. A pleasant book to listen to, but not much more. ( )
  BoekenTrol71 | Feb 22, 2019 |
I found many interesting ideas in this classic but overall felt it was an uneasy mixture of philosophy and satire. Rasselas is bored in the Happy Valley in which all the offspring of Abyssinian royalty were confined (along with their servants & others required for their comfort and amusement) because, as he says himself, " 'That I want nothing,' said the Prince, 'or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint: if I had any known want, I should have a certain wish; that wish would excite endeavour, and I should not then repine to see the sun move so slowly towards the western mountains, or to lament when the day breaks, and sleep will no longer hide me from myself.' " One of his advisors chides him saying that he didn't know what miseries the outer world contained & the Prince decides that "I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness."

For a while, he is happy while contemplating how he will escape the valley as that gives him an interest in life & he eventually meets a poet, Imlac, who had lived outside the boundaries of the valley & in fact had travelled widely before settling there. In telling Rasselas his story, they discuss what makes for happiness. Imlac declares that "Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed." but the Prince is unwilling to accept this verdict. He invites Imlac to help him escape the valley & become his companion and guide. At the last minute, they are joined by Rasselas's favorite sister Princess Nekayah & her favorite attendant Pekuah.

With Imlac's assistance, Rasselas & Nekayah gradually adjust to life outside the Happy Valley and begin to investigate what kind of life is best. They meet many different types of people -- city society (in Cairo), a wise guru, a hermit, an astronomer, an Arab bandit, etc. They debate the nature of marriage & whether married life is required for true happiness. Somewhat surprisingly to me, Nekayah is the one who thinks marriage does not contribute to happiness but rather causes unhappiness, which she backs up with examples of married couples she has come to know.

During all this, Rasselas is trying to find the correct "choice of life" for himself. Johnson keeps returning to the question of whether solitude or society is better. As the hermit remarks: "In solitude, if I escape the example of bad men, I want likewise the counsel and conversation of the good." ( )
  leslie.98 | Dec 15, 2017 |
I find it hard to believe that a book this good could be written in a week, but the evidence is before me and I have read it. A strange mix of fairy tale, light philosophy and speculum regis. Smooth, unobtrusive writing. He has a way of turning a thought into a phrase that really speaks to you. Don't come to this looking for plot and characterisation.

I read the OUP edition. The notes are geared towards the international market with many definitions of words. If English is your first language you won't need them. ( )
  Lukerik | Aug 2, 2017 |
Though presented as "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia", this is not a factual history but a tale of adventure and self discovery, centered around the eponymous prince, his sister, her maid, and their wise companion Imlac. It begins with his growing up in the "Happy Valley", which is isolated from the rest of the world by mountains and a large gate, and arranged by the king to provide every entertainment and pleasure he could wish for his children and their large entourage. However as Rasselas grows up he becomes disenchanted with the shallow existence, and wants to see the outside world and experience unhappiness and worldly strife first hand. So begins his adventure to find more meaning to life.
Along the way, they meet people from various walks of life, including sages, hermits, ordinary families, mercenaries, monks, and an astronomer. They discuss the various ways of living that they come accross, with the main recurring theme throughout the book being what is the best "choice of life". They discuss their various viewpoints, with arguments for and against each mode of existence. Each time they think they have found the ideal state of being, they come to realise that the situation is more complex than first thought, and thus the search for happiness continues. As such this is quite a philosophical tale and has many moments of deep reflection. There are some good quotable sections in here too, but what lets it down somewhat is that the setting is not further elaborated - ie there is little of the exotic flavour that one might expect from a story mostly set in and around Cairo. Because the quest for a happy, fulfilling, and moral life is of at least some concern to most people, this story is still of wide appeal. However, its manner of telling is often more like a fairy tale, which somewhat undermines its more serious themes. ( )
  P_S_Patrick | Apr 13, 2017 |
Rasselas and his companions escape the pleasures of the "happy valley" in order to make their "choice of life." By witnessing the misfortunes and miseries of others they come to understand the nature of happiness, and value it more highly. Their travels and enquiries raise important practical and philosophical questions concerning many aspects of the human condition, including the business of a poet, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and how to find contentment.
  mrsdanaalbasha | Mar 12, 2016 |
I had a hard time getting into this book, and I had to push myself to finish. I was very disappointed in the end. ( )
  AmieB7 | Jan 21, 2016 |
"'He who will determine,'" returned Imlac, 'against that which he knows because there may be something which he knows not; he that can set hypothetical possibility against acknowledged certainty, is not to be admitted among reasonable beings.'"

This is very interesting, especially in comparison to Candide. I also found several more quotes for my collection! I wouldn't have minded seeing the plot fleshed out a little more, though. ( )
  AmandaL. | Jan 16, 2016 |
"That greatest of philosophical tales," as Warren Fleischauer calls The History of Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia in his introduction to the edition I read -- one of 112 listed at this site! -- will disappoint anyone prepared for something else, a novel, a story, an adventure. The adventure here is all in ideas, expressed by fairy-tale characters such as Prince, Princess, her Favorite (companion), and Poet, and the ideas are about How To Live, How to Be Happy. As old as these issues are, and as much discussed, somehow their embodiment in this charming tale makes them all fresh, and the inconclusive ending is a surprising touch that lends a note of modernity in its awareness of its own artificiality. Hillaire Belloc advocated reading it annually, and while I may not do quite that, I will revisit it, perhaps in a different, more attractive edition: the Barron's was simply at hand, and the next time around, notes would be nice. But for the first read-through, just following the ideas and enjoying the incomparable writing was good. ( )
  V.V.Harding | Apr 21, 2015 |
This is quite brilliant! I was pleasantly surprised to find a classic so readable and interesting. It reminds me a lot of Voltaire’s Candide, also published in 1759, although this one isn’t a satire, it’s just often amusing. It mainly follows Rasselas through his investigating whether human beings are capable of attaining happiness. And what that might be.


The Prince soon concluded that he should never be happy in a course of life of which he was ashamed. He thought it unsuitable to a reasonable being to act without a plan, and to be sad or cheerful only by chance. “Happiness,” said he, “must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.”


I had decided the princess Nekayah was sleeping with her maid, Pekuah, when the later got abducted by very nice Arab bandits and Nekayah lost all will to live in her absence. Later, the reencounter is most emotive and includes them going off to be alone.

“Yet what,” said she, “is to be expected from our pursuit of happiness, when we find the state of life to be such that happiness itself is the cause of misery? Why should we endeavour to attain that of which the possession cannot be secured? I shall henceforward fear to yield my heart to excellence, however bright, or to fondness, however tender, lest I should lose again what I have lost in Pekuah.” PP. 122

The Princess and her favourite embraced each other with transport too violent to be expressed, and went out together to pour the tears of tenderness in secret, and exchange professions of kindness and gratitude. After a few hours they returned into the refectory of the convent, where, in the presence of the prior and his brethren, the Prince required of Pekuah the history of her adventures. PP. 124

“You, sir,” said the sage, “are the first who has complained of misery in the Happy Valley. I hope to convince you that your complaints have no real cause. You are here in full possession of all the Emperor of Abyssinia can bestow; here is neither labour to be endured nor danger to be dreaded, yet here is all that labour or danger can procure or purchase. Look round and tell me which of your wants is without supply: if you want nothing, how are you unhappy?”

“That I want nothing,” said the Prince, “or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint: if I had any known want, I should have a certain wish; that wish would excite endeavour, and I should not then repine to see the sun move so slowly towards the western mountains, or to lament when the day breaks, and sleep will no longer hide me from myself. When I see the kids and the lambs chasing one another, I fancy that I should be happy if I had something to pursue. But, possessing all that I can want, I find one day and one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is still more tedious than the former. Let your experience inform me how the day may now seem as short as in my childhood, while nature was yet fresh, and every moment showed me what I never had observed before. I have already enjoyed too much: give me something to desire.” The old man was surprised at this new species of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be silent. “Sir,” said he, “if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state.” “Now,” said the Prince, “you have given me something to desire. I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.” PP. 44

“There is so much infelicity,” said the poet, “in the world, that scarce any man has leisure from his own distresses to estimate the comparative happiness of others. Knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas. Ignorance is mere privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction, and, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget. I am therefore inclined to conclude that if nothing counteracts the natural consequence of learning, we grow more happy as out minds take a wider range. PP. 66

“When this thought had taken possession of my mind, I considered every moment as wasted which did not bring me nearer to Abyssinia. I hastened into Egypt, and, notwithstanding my impatience, was detained ten months in the contemplation of its ancient magnificence and in inquiries after the remains of its ancient learning. I found in Cairo a mixture of all nations: some brought thither by the love of knowledge, some by the hope of gain; many by the desire of living after their own manner without observation, and of lying hid in the obscurity of multitudes; for in a city populous as Cairo it is possible to obtain at the same time the gratifications of society and the secrecy of solitude. PP. 68


“Domestic discord,” answered she, “is not inevitably and fatally necessary, but yet it is not easily avoided. We seldom see that a whole family is virtuous; the good and the evil cannot well agree, and the evil can yet less agree with one another. Even the virtuous fall sometimes to variance, when their virtues are of different kinds and tending to extremes. In general, those parents have most reverence who most deserve it, for he that lives well cannot be despised.

“Many other evils infest private life. Some are the slaves of servants whom they have trusted with their affairs. Some are kept in continual anxiety by the caprice of rich relations, whom they cannot please and dare not offend. Some husbands are imperious and some wives perverse, and, as it is always more easy to do evil than good, though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one makes many miserable.”

“If such be the general effect of marriage,” said the Prince, “I shall for the future think it dangerous to connect my interest with that of another, lest I should be unhappy by my partner’s fault.”

“I have met,” said the Princess, “with many who live single for that reason, but I never found that their prudence ought to raise envy. They dream away their time without friendship, without fondness, and are driven to rid themselves of the day, for which they have no use, by childish amusements or vicious delights. They act as beings under the constant sense of some known inferiority that fills their minds with rancour and their tongues with censure. They are peevish at home and malevolent abroad, and, as the outlaws of human nature, make it their business and their pleasure to disturb that society which debars them from its privileges. To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude; it is not retreat but exclusion from mankind. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”

“What then is to be done?” said Rasselas. “The more we inquire the less we can resolve. Surely he is most likely to please himself that has no other inclination to regard.” PP. 98-99

It is evident that as any man acts in a wider compass he must be more exposed to opposition from enmity or miscarriage from chance. Whoever has many to please or to govern must use the ministry of many agents, some of whom will be wicked and some ignorant, by some he will be misled and by others betrayed. If he gratifies one he will offend another; those that are not favoured will think themselves injured, and since favours can be conferred but upon few the greater number will be always discontented.”

“The discontent,” said the Princess, “which is thus unreasonable, I hope that I shall always have spirit to despise and you power to repress.”

“Discontent,” answered Rasselas, “will not always be without reason under the most just and vigilant administration of public affairs. None, however attentive, can always discover that merit which indigence or faction may happen to obscure, and none, however powerful, can always reward it. Yet he that sees inferior desert advanced above him will naturally impute that preference to partiality or caprice, and indeed it can scarcely be hoped that any man, however magnanimous by Nature or exalted by condition, will be able to persist for ever in fixed and inexorable justice of distribution; he will sometimes indulge his own affections and sometimes those of his favourites; he will permit some to please him who can never serve him; he will discover in those whom he loves qualities which in reality they do not possess, and to those from whom he receives pleasure he will in his turn endeavour to give it. Thus will recommendations sometimes prevail which were purchased by money or by the more destructive bribery of flattery and servility.

“He that hath much to do will do something wrong, and of that wrong must suffer the consequences, and if it were possible that he should always act rightly, yet, when such numbers are to judge of his conduct, the bad will censure and obstruct him by malevolence and the good sometimes by mistake.

“The highest stations cannot therefore hope to be the abodes of happiness, which I would willingly believe to have fled from thrones and palaces to seats of humble privacy and placid obscurity. For what can hinder the satisfaction or intercept the expectations of him whose abilities are adequate to his employments, who sees with his own eyes the whole circuit of his influence, who chooses by his own knowledge all whom he trusts, and whom none are tempted to deceive by hope or fear? Surely he has nothing to do but to love and to be loved; to be virtuous and to be happy.”

“Whether perfect happiness would be procured by perfect goodness,” said Nekayah, “this world will never afford an opportunity of deciding. But this, at least, may be maintained, that we do not always find visible happiness in proportion to visible virtue. All natural and almost all political evils are incident alike to the bad and good; they are confounded in the misery of a famine, and not much distinguished in the fury of a faction; they sink together in a tempest and are driven together from their country by invaders. All that virtue can afford is quietness of conscience and a steady prospect of a happier state; this may enable us to endure calamity with patience, but remember that patience must oppose pain.” PP. 100-101

‘Nature sets her gifts on the right hand and on the left.’ Those conditions which flatter hope and attract desire are so constituted that as we approach one we recede from another. There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but by too much prudence may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either. This is often the fate of long consideration; he does nothing who endeavours to do more than is allowed to humanity. Flatter not yourself with contrarieties of pleasure. Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring; no man can at the same time fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.” PP. 107

“It seems to me,” said Imlac, “that while you are making the choice of life you neglect to live. You wander about a single city, which, however large and diversified, can now afford few novelties, and forget that you are in a country famous among the earliest monarchies for the power and wisdom of its inhabitants - a country where the sciences first dawned that illuminate the world, and beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil society or domestic life. PP. 108

When, in prospect of some good, whether natural or moral, we break the rules prescribed us, we withdraw from the direction of superior wisdom, and take all consequences upon ourselves. Man cannot so far know the connection of causes and events as that he may venture to do wrong in order to do right. When we pursue our end by lawful means, we may always console our miscarriage by the hope of future recompense. When we consult only our own policy, and attempt to find a nearer way to good by over-leaping the settled boundaries of right and wrong, we cannot be happy even by success, because we cannot escape the consciousness of our fault; but if we miscarry, the disappointment is irremediably embittered. How comfortless is the sorrow of him who feels at once the pangs of guilt and the vexation of calamity which guilt has brought upon him! PP. 117 ( )
1 vote Evalangui | Aug 22, 2014 |
I read this book so I could check it off my '1001 books' list. Did I find it enlightening or life changing? Well... no. Samuel Johnson is probably best known for his English Dictionary as well as being the creator of many famous and wise sayings. Rasselas is filled with many pithy sayings, that are loosely tied together in a story about Rasselas, the Prince of Abissinia, who leaves his comfortable life as a member of the ruling family in search of wisdom and meaning. I found it hard to focus on the plot because of the many rambling discourses about a wide variety of topics, ranging from relationships between men and women to flying machines. ( )
  jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 |
Based on Bruce's expedition to Ethiopia, Johnson's didactic novel describes the education of Rasselas (Prince Selassie -- what did the anti-racist Johnson, who had a Jamaican manservant know, I wonder?) on his amba (secluded hilltop) in Ethiopia. This is an eighteenth-century novel of education, a bildungsroman, but with an African setting.
  Fledgist | Feb 7, 2013 |
Now here’s a wee tale that reads like a novelist’s version of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. If you’re not familiar with that particular section of the Bible, I’d definitely suggest you check it out. It’s a piece of classic literature in its own right. But it is often criticised for being a bit laissez faire about life, as if there’s no real point in pursuing anything cos, ultimately, none of it really means anything.

So, Rasselas is this guy who lives in Happy Valley (no, not the Monty Python audio sketch). He has everything he needs and is (therefore?) deeply unhappy. He contrives a plan of escape which is as straightforward as it is unrealistic. Nevertheless, we needn’t argue about that literary device. The deed is done and he finds himself with his sister and a couple of servants out in the big wide world.

Once there, there’s a bit of culture-shock to get over and then they’re off on a journey to find something, anything that will satisfy them in life.

The short story is that they don’t find anything and then they head back to the valley.

The long story is that they visit all sorts of people and places and hear all sorts of wisdom and foolishness and basically discover that no one else is satisfied either and so it’s okay for them not to be and then they head back to the valley.

And if you think I’ve ruined the story for you now, you’ve missed the point. It isn’t about whether they get back to the valley or not. It’s about the philosophical discussions they have and I won’t be spoiling that for you by detailing them here. You can go and read them for yourself and a quick read it will be. ( )
  arukiyomi | Mar 31, 2012 |
Samuel Johnson's fine book rather reminded me of Voltaire's 'Candide', except there isn't quite as much travelling, and the variety of philosophical ideas expounded upon is much greater. The book was remarkably readable for one quite so old, and as an English Teacher I found it fascinating to see how usage has changed in the intervening period; we use commas differently, and we no longer write musick or rustick.

Johnson is also eminently quotable. This piece really stuck in my mind: "All skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness he has received." For me, this is the perfect way of looking at the Internet as a whole, and explains the logic behind all those wonderful writers scribbling away and posting their thoughts online for the world to see.

https://youtu.be/9YNUvt8eXlI ( )
  soylentgreen23 | Dec 1, 2011 |
It was nice enough I suppose. - the writing and the idea But it's kind of pointless. Which is kind of the point. ( )
  marcelrochester | Feb 8, 2011 |
Rasselas is a brief but comprehensive introduction to some of the recurring questions of political and practical philosophy. What is the best way to live out a human life? Where is real fulfillment to be found? Of what does happiness consist?

Samuel Johnson embodies these questions in the tale of Rasselas, an Ethiopian prince who has been cloistered from the cares of the world in a remote mountain fastness. But Rasselas is not satisfied with his days of leisure and amusement, so he seeks to venture forth . . . .

The great Dr Johnson's style here is elegant; his questions searching; his wisdom never simplistic, but always simple.

This is a perfect introduction to much broader reading in philosophy. ( )
1 vote mrtall | May 3, 2010 |
Johnson: The History of Rasselas (1759)

I wish I would be a scholar of philosophy. Then I would know the history of how developed over time. Without this knowledge I have to admit that Samuel Johnson's "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia" felt shallow and boring. I am sure that there are plenty of ideas that Johnson introduced or at least made significant contribution to in this book, but I couldn't identify them. Being an ignoramus the conversations that made up a lot of the book felt repetitive of ideas I read elsewhere, probably in much later written books.

The first book that comes to mind though is Voltaire's Candide was published the same year. But Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is 20th century and that was also a novel, where a hero travels a long way. There he is mostly aloe o the journey that is of spiritual nature, while here the price travels with his teacher, Imlac, his sister Nekayah, and her "favourite," Pekuah. Pekuah is an interesting choice for a name. In Hebrew "Pekuah nefesh" refers to the concept of saving life of another, which is a mitzvah, commandment. The original title of this book was "The choice of life" so I am sure that the names are not randomly selected.

I was planning to summarize the lessons the travelers learn in their search for comparative happiness of people around the world, but then gave up on it. It's best if you read it for yourself, it's not that long. This way there is a better chance that you can learn the same lessons by a single proxy (reading about it, instead of experiencing them) instead of a double proxy (me summarizing what I read.) I have to warn you though the end was so abrupt that I couldn't' believe it was suddenly over.

The story is simple enough: a prince lives in happy valley that he cannot leave, but everything is provided for him there. In conversation with a well-traveled scholar he decided to venture out and discover which people are the happiest and why. On the road he learns by elimination all the reasons: why people are not happy, what are the obstacles. That's about it without telling any major plot development, of which aren't many. The treasures are hidden in the discussions he is having with his companions. I wish you happy learning too and discovering what makes you (as opposed to everyone else) happy.
2 vote break | Feb 11, 2010 |
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1165676...

I've had this hanging around for ages, and eventually read it last week - it is very short, only 112 pages in my Penguin edition, and the original was only 93. Rasselas, as the title declares, is a prince of Abyssinia, who lives in a happy valley of the kingdom where he and his friends and family are preserved from all disturbing outside influences. With his friend, Imlac, his sister Nekayah, and her companion Pekuah, the tunnel out of the happy valley in search of adventure and take up residence in Cairo. They meet a deranged astronomer, and get him back in touch with reality; they get their adventure when Pekuah is kidnapped by Arabs; but she is rescued without too much drama. At the end of the book, they conclude that their dreams are unattainable and resolve to go back home.

I was interested that the action is exclusively set in Africa. There is mention of Europeans being in Cairo, and this making it a cosmopolitan city, but I don't think we meet any of them. I was also interested that the astronomer character, whose delusion is that he is in sole control of the planets and the weather, is aware of the moons of Jupiter. We are clearly meant to read the African characters as disaffected young English men and women, and that is how they are portrayed (with a touch of Orientalism) in the illustrated editions on-line; I don't think Johnson is really trying to say anything about Africa (though he had translated Jerónimo Lobo's book about Abyssinia twenty-five years earlier).

It's striking that this was written 250 years ago this month, the same year (1759) as Candide, which has a similar basic concept, but the timings I think are such that neither Johnson nor Voltaire can have much influenced the other. It seems to have been the last fiction (indeed, the only prose fiction) that Johnson published. It is somewhat pessimistic but very engaging. ( )
  nwhyte | Apr 1, 2009 |
“…the late Mr. Strahan the printer told me, that Johnson wrote [Rasselas], that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over. Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a hundred pounds, but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more, when it came to a second edition.

Considering the large sums which have been received for compilations, and works requiring not much more genius than compilations, we cannot but wonder at the very low price which he was content to receive for this admirable performance; which, though he had written nothing else, would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None of his writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe; for it has been translated into most, if not all, of the modern languages. This tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery, and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shows us that this stage of our being is full of "vanity and vexation of spirit." To those who look no further than the present life, or who maintain that human nature has not fallen from the state in which it was created, the instruction of this sublime story will be of no avail. But they who think justly, and feel with strong sensibility, will listen with eagerness and admiration to its truth and wisdom. Voltaire's Candide, written to refute the system of Optimism, which it has accomplished with brilliant success, is wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's Rasselas; insomuch, that I have heard Johnson say, that if they had not been published so closely one after the other that there was not time for imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken from the other. Though the proposition illustrated by both these works was the same, namely, that in our present state there is more evil than good; the intention of the writers was very different. Voltaire, I am afraid, meant only by wanton profaneness to obtain a sportive victory over religion, and to discredit the belief of a superintending Providence: Johnson meant, by showing the unsatisfactory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to things eternal. Rasselas, as was observed to me by a very accomplished lady, may be considered as a more enlarged and more deeply philosophical discourse in prose, upon the interesting truth, which in his Vanity of Human Wishes he had so successfully enforced in verse.

The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not satisfied if a year passes without my having read it through ; and at every perusal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is so highly raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying the intimacy of such a man.
--James Boswell, in Life of Johnson.
  JamesBoswell | Mar 21, 2009 |
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