{"product_id":"the-history-of-rasselas-prince-of-abissinia-dover-literature-literary-fiction","title":"The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Dover Literature: Literary Fiction) by Samuel Johnson","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimply 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA philosophical romance tracing the pilgrimage of an African prince and his companions to Egypt, \u003ci\u003eRasselas\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDirected specifically against eighteenth-century optimism and, more generally, against all simple formulas for achieving happiness, \u003ci\u003eRasselas\u003c\/i\u003e has often been compared with Voltaire's \u003ci\u003eCandide\u003c\/i\u003e -- which was published only a few weeks before Johnson's work. Both novels have deservedly attained the status of classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDover Publications\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePub Date: March 4, 2005\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e0.27\" H x 8.42\" L x 5.56\" W\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e99 pages\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaperback\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dover Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44943166800058,"sku":"9780486440941","price":6.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0444\/2213\/5968\/files\/81M_XJdSL1L._SL1500.jpg?v=1750727974","url":"https:\/\/naturenurture.shop\/products\/the-history-of-rasselas-prince-of-abissinia-dover-literature-literary-fiction","provider":"nature+nurture","version":"1.0","type":"link"}