Wikipedia shows a good many works by Samuel Johnson just prior to the American Revolution = plays, poems, essays on a multitude of subjects, and of course his famous Dictionary Of The English Language – but only one work of prose fiction. That work is The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia. As the only one of Dr. Johnson's fictional works, it's certainly worth a look. As an item on the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die,” it belongs here anyway.
Rasselas, as the title suggests, is a member of Abissinia's royal family (where Ethiopia is today) – in fact, he's the crown prince. As such, as the laws of the kingdom require, he begins life in a place called the Happy Valley, surrounded by unclimbable mountains and sealed off by an enormous gate in the only tunnel through those mountains to the outside world. Here he is to stay until his father dies or otherwise steps down, at which point he will assume the throne.
Now, the Happy Valley is a pleasant place to live. Rasselas and his fellow-royals who live there have all the luxuries they can possibly want – food and drink, parties, education, clothing. It will surprise no one, I think, to learn that Rasselas grows bored very quickly and longs to escape. In his youth he meets a philosopher named Imlac who knows of a tunnel out of the valley and convinces this philosopher to take him, his sister Nekayah, and her servant Pekuah out with him. This he does, and the group of them spend the rest of this work exploring the world to find for themselves the best way to live.
The rest of the work consists of the visits the little group makes to various people and communities in an effort to determine their choice of life. As with many literary works of this time, that structure makes “Rasselas” read in a pretty episodic way instead of as a single, smoothly-told story. The narrative also breaks off regularly for a number of philosophical discussions, which makes sense in context, but doesn't add much to the plot (what there is of it).
We read in the critical literature that reviewers, in previous times and today, find difficulty in referring to “Rasselas” as a novel. It's more of an examination of the question “What is the best choice of life?” with a fictional framework. In fact, the work concludes (spoiler alert) so abruptly that we don't actually learn what choices Prince Rasselas and his companions make. It's even a little surprising to see that the work carries the prince's name – he appears on the page no more often than any other character, and indeed less often than many others.
Bearing all this in mind, “Rasselas” is a perfectly good piece of work, and worth diving into – it provides some interesting discussions of various life choices, and it's short enough not to wear on the reader. This is, of course, what we professionals call “damning with faint praise”, which isn't too surprising given that (according to rumor) Dr. Johnson wrote it in a week's time to raise money for his mother's funeral expenses. It was popular enough in its day to accomplish its goal, and remains in print. So I can recommend it, but not with enormous enthusiasm. You have been warned.
Benshlomo says, Some philosophers make great storytellers, and some do not.
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