About Rasselas
Wisdom transcends time and cultural differences “When I was in my early teens, I saw a production in Zulu of Shakespeare’s MacBeth. I don’t remember a great deal about it …
Course: Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas: An Introduction
Text Chapters 41 – 44
CHAPTER XLI THE ASTRONOMER DISCOVERS THE CAUSE OF HIS UNEASINESS. “At last the time came when the secret burst his reserve. We were sitting together last night in the turret …
Text Chapters 45 – 48
CHAPTER XLV THEY DISCOURSE WITH AN OLD MAN. The evening was now far past, and they rose to return home. As they walked along the banks of the Nile, delighted …
Text Chapters 37 – 40
CHAPTER XXXVII THE PRINCESS HEARS NEWS OF PEKUAH. In seven mouths one of the messengers who had been sent away upon the day when the promise was drawn from the …
Text Chapters 33 – 36
CHAPTER XXXIII THE PRINCESS MEETS WITH AN UNEXPECTED MISFORTUNE. They rose up, and returned through the cavity at which they had entered; and the Princess prepared for her favourite a …
Text Chapters 28 – 32
CHAPTER XXVIII RASSELAS AND NEKAYAH CONTINUE THEIR CONVERSATION. “Dear Princess,” said Rasselas, “you fall into the common errors of exaggeratory declamation, by producing in a familiar disquisition examples of national …
Text Chapters 17 – 20
CHAPTER XVII THE PRINCE ASSOCIATES WITH YOUNG MEN OF SPIRIT AND GAIETY. Rasselas rose next day, and resolved to begin his experiments upon life. “Youth,” cried he, “is the time …
Text Chapters 25 – 27
CHAPTER XXV THE PRINCESS PURSUES HER INQUIRY WITH MORE DILIGENCE THAN SUCCESS. The Princess in the meantime insinuated herself into many families; for there are few doors through which liberality, …
Text Chapters 21 – 24
CHAPTER XXI THE HAPPINESS OF SOLITUDE—THE HERMIT’S HISTORY. They came on the third day, by the direction of the peasants, to the hermit’s cell. It was a cavern in the …
Text Chapters 13 – 16
CHAPTER XIII RASSELAS DISCOVERS THE MEANS OF ESCAPE. The Prince now dismissed his favourite to rest; but the narrative of wonders and novelties filled his mind with perturbation. He revolved …
Text Chapters 9 – 12
CHAPTER IX THE HISTORY OF IMLAC (continued). “When I first entered upon the world of waters, and lost sight of land, I looked round about me in pleasing terror, and …
Text Chapters 5 – 8
CHAPTER V THE PRINCE MEDITATES HIS ESCAPE. He now found that it would be very difficult to effect that which it was very easy to suppose effected. When he looked …
Lecture on Chapters 5 – 8
“Oppression is, in Abissinian dominions, neither frequent nor tolerated; but no form of government has been yet discovered, by which cruelty can be wholly prevented. Subordination supposes power on one …
Lecture Chapters 1 – 4
“Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that …
Theodore Dalrymple on Samuel Johnson and Rasselas
“There could be no better example of how something written more than a quarter of a millennium ago speaks to the present day than Dr. Johnson’s short philosophical fable Rasselas.” …