The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Dover Literature: Literary Fiction) - Softcover

Johnson, Samuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 048644094X ISBN 13: 9780486440941

Verlag: DOVER PUBN INC, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

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.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: DOVER PUBN INC
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 048644094X
• ISBN 13: 9780486440941
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 99
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Soc. Agr. La Raia Ss; http://www.la-raia.it; ; Strada Monterotondo, 79; Novi Ligure; 15067; Italien