Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

About the book

Rasselas grows dissatisfied in the Happy Valley, where every provision for comfort seems unable to supply a purpose. With companions including his sister Nekayah and the poet Imlac, he enters the wider world to examine the possibilities of human life. Their encounters consider learning, retirement, marriage, social distinction, and different claims to wisdom. Each promising answer acquires complications when observed beyond its first attractive appearance. Johnson's concise chapters combine narrative movement with conversation, allowing experience to test what argument alone might make convincing. The travellers' search remains sympathetic even when its expectations prove inadequate. The tale asks how people should live amid limits that no single choice removes, and whether recognizing those limits can produce a more humane understanding of oneself and others.

• The search for happiness
• Choice and limitation
• Experience and wisdom

Why read it

For a lucid, compassionate inquiry into happiness that repeatedly tests an attractive ideal against the circumstances of an actual life.

Philosophical tale · English text