The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson - April 1759

Samuel Johnson  

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia 1759

Born September 18, 1709 - Litchfield, England

1735 - Marries Elizabeth Porter  



December 13, 1738, published his first work, "London", a poem

1744 -publishes The Life of Richard Savage, a revolutionary biography

1746 - begins work on The Dictionary of the English language, published April 1755

1759 - Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
 is published, written in a week to help pay his mother's funeral costs (this is the accepted view but some scholars don't agree) 

1759 - Voltaire published Candide

May 16, 1763 - Meets James Boswell. 

Dies December 13, 1778

1791 - The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell is published.

My guess is I first read Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia about fifty years ago, about the same time I read Boswell's biography for the first time.  Over the years I have read a number, far from all Johnson's essays, some of his lives of the poets and thirty volumes in the Yale Edition of The Journals of James Boswell.

I reread his Rasselas this week.  About the journey of a young prince seeking to find the way to happiness, it was published in the same year as Candide by Voltaire, also about a young prince on a journey.  As much as I admire Johnson as a patron saint of the reading life, 90 percent of readers will enjoy Candide much more, as do I.  I would predict most who out of curiosity started Johnson's work would not finish it.  I would endorse Candide to bright young adults.  As to Johnson the prose is too elevated for many highly educated modern readers.  That being said, there is profound wisdom in the conversations in this book.  Johnson is the sort of person who could have written the wisdom books of the major religions of the world.