The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

by Samuel Johnson, Thomas Keymer (Editor)

Overview

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. Johnson's adaptation of the popular oriental tale displays his usual wit and perceptiveness; skeptical and probing, his tale nevertheless suggests that wisdom and self-knowledge need not be entirely beyond reach. This sparkling new edition includes an authoritative introduction by Thomas Keymer relating the story to Johnson's life, thought, and writings; the rise of the novel genre; and the global context of the Seven Years War. Extensive annotations relate the novel to its literary, philosophical, and political contexts.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199229970
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	268,223
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1250L (what's this?)

About the Author

Thomas Keymer is Chancellor Jackman Professor of English at the University of Toronto. He co-edited The Cambridge Companion to English Literature from 1740 to 1830.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Samuel Johnson: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Appendix A: Other Writing by Samuel Johnson

1. From Father Jerome Lobo, A Voyage to Abyssinia, translated by Samuel Johnson (1735)
2. The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749)
3. Rambler no. 4 (1750)
4. Rambler no. 204 (1752)
5. Rambler no. 205 (1752)

Appendix B: Contemporary Responses to Rasselas

1. From the Monthly Review (1759)
2. From Sir John Hawkins, The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. 2nd ed. (1787)
3. From James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
4. From Ellis Cornelia Knight, Dinarbas (1790)
5. Elizabeth Pope Whately, The Second Part of the History of Rasselas (1835)

Appendix C: Orientalism in the Eighteenth Century

1. Joseph Addison, The Spectator no. 159 (1711)
2. From Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Jessica Richard’s engaging new edition of Rasselas for Broadview provides everything needed to bring into focus the paradoxical nature of Samuel Johnson’s achievement in that slender masterpiece. As this edition makes clear, Johnson penned, against the cultural grain, a willfully anti-exotic ‘Oriental tale.’ Richard highlights the insouciance of such an Oriental tale in which the main characters—Coptic Christians in Africa—reflect with aplomb on the accidental happenstance of northwest Europe’s global ascendance. Through her well-chosen contextual materials, Richard both establishes a background for Rasselas in the conventions of eighteenth-century literary Orientalism and clarifies the manifest singularity of Johnson’s classic novella.” — Clement Hawes, Pennsylvania State University

“The globalization of literary studies has produced fascinating insights into the cultural interactions between Europe and the East, and Europe and the Americas during the eighteenth century. Jessica Richard’s enterprising edition of Johnson’s Rasselas brings out the global interests of this popular tale by placing it firmly in the context of enlightenment Orientalism. It highlights Johnson’s cosmopolitan universalism, for while embracing cultural difference he reverses the Oriental gaze, and uses the conventions of the Oriental tale to historicize his exploration of human desire and happiness. This new Broadview edition offers an excellent introduction to Johnson’s global status.” — Greg Clingham, Bucknell University

From the Publisher

"The globalization of literary studies has produced fascinating insights into the cultural interactions between Europe and the East, and Europe and the Americas during the eighteenth century. Jessica Richard's enterprising edition of Johnson's Rasselas brings out the global interests of this popular tale by placing it firmly in the context of enlightenment Orientalism. It highlights Johnson's cosmopolitan universalism, for while embracing cultural difference he reverses the Oriental gaze, and uses the conventions of the Oriental tale to historicize his exploration of human desire and happiness. This new Broadview edition offers an excellent introduction to Johnson's global status."

Greg Clingham Bucknell University

"Jessica Richard's engaging new edition of Rasselas for Broadview provides everything needed to bring into focus the paradoxical nature of Samuel Johnson's achievement in that slender masterpiece. As this edition makes clear, Johnson penned, against the cultural grain, a willfully anti-exotic 'Oriental tale.' Richard highlights the insouciance of such an Oriental tale in which the main characters—Coptic Christians in Africa—reflect with aplomb on the accidental happenstance of northwest Europe's global ascendance. Through her well-chosen contextual materials, Richard both establishes a background for Rasselas in the conventions of eighteenth-century literary Orientalism and clarifies the manifest singularity of Johnson's classic novella."

Clement Hawes Pennsylvania State University