This book was written in 1759 in order to support Johnsons mother and ultimately pay for her funera. The plot concerns Rasselas, son of the King of Abissinia (now Ethopia), who leaves his home in company with his sister, Nekayah, and a philosopher, Imlac, to seek adventure. His observation of other kinds of people eventually leads to the conclusion that there is no easy path to happiness, and he returns to Abissinia along with his companions.

This copy was published in 1889 as part of a series of Ten Cent Classics. The soft cover book measures 4 ½ inches by 6 ½ inches and contains 192 pages. The cover consists of thin paper boards and a cloth cover spine. The book is bound by staples. The cover is securely attached. The cover shows signs of soiling. The name of a previous owner is inscribed across the top of the front. The cover shows sings of wear to the edges and to the surface. The surface is worn away towards the top of the front and has a small chip out of the bottom front. The back cover is worn away along the fore edge as well as the last 10 or so leaves (shown below). The pages show no signs of rips or foxing. Exceptions noted the overall condition of this old book is good.

Excerpt from the Indorduction:
… This life was to Johnson, and to almost all the earnest thinkers of his time, unhappy in itself- a school-house where the rod was ever active. But in its unhappiness Johnson found no power that could overthrow his faith. To him this world was but a place of education for the happiness that would be to the faithful in the world to come. There was a great dread for him in the question, Who shall be found faithful? But there was no doubt in his mind that the happiness of man is to be found only beyond the grave. This was a feeling spread through Europe in the darkness gathering before the outburst of the storm of the great French Revolution. Even Gray, in his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, regarded Eton boys at their sports as little victims, unconscious of the doom of miseries awaiting them in life. Thus Johnsons Rasselas is a book doubly typical. We have it in the spirit of the writer when it best expressed the spirit of his time.

H.M.
End excerpt

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