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Lecture on Chapters 9 - 12

Theodore Dalrymple lectures on Imlac's personal history: leaving Abissinia and entering the Happy Valley.
“Pride…will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it may be compared to the misery of others.” (p. 22)

This week, you will learn about the connection between poetry and knowledge, the unexpected pleasures of rural life, and the well-concealed anxieties of social existence.

You will explore the life-story of Imlac, the realms beyond the Happy Valley, and Rasselas’ initial encounter with the wider world.

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Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas: An Introduction

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