The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, originally titled The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale, though often abbreviated to Rasselas, is an apologue about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was "The Choice of Life". The book was first published in April 1759 in England. Early readers considered Rasselas to be a work of philosophical and practical importance and critics often remark on the difficulty of classifying it as a novel.

Uncovers African influences on the Western imagination during the eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the ways Ethiopia inspired and shaped the work of Samuel Johnson.

Excerpt from The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia: A Tale Johmon seems to have felt that dramatic writing was not his forte, and he never attempted it afterwards; his next Work was The Rambler, which was commenced in March, 1750, and was continued at the rate of two papers a week until March, 1752. The sale of the work was' at first very inconsiderable, not exceeding five hundmd; and it is a very remarkable circumstance, that the only paper which could be said to be popular, and had a prosperous sale, was one which Johnson did not write. This was No. 97, which was written by Richardson. It has been objected to the Rambler, that the diction is too pompous, and that there is a triteness of sentiment, and a same ness of style and matter; it is, however, a singular instance of fertility of invention, and will always be admired for its advocacy of the principles of religion and morality; the papers on literary criticism are certainly superior to those which represent actual life and manners, for Johnson had studied books more than men. The Rambler, has now, however, taken a permanent place among the first Works of this class, and there are few compositions in which practical Ethics, are treated with more acuteness of observation, dignity of expression, or richness of illustration, than in many of these essays. In 1752, Johnson lost his wife, an aflliction which he felt and spoke of to the end of his life, and although not accustomed or partial to elegant female society, he took into his house as an inmate, Mrs. Ann Williams, the daughter of a physician, who had spent his time and his fortune, in attempting to discover the longitude. The destitute situation of this lady, who was blind, and in poverty, excited the benevolence of John son, who took care that she should not want. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.