The plot is simple in the extreme. Rasselas, son of the King of Abyssinia, is shut up in a beautiful valley, "till the order of succession should call him to the throne." He grows weary of the factitious entertainments of the place, and after much brooding escapes with his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah and his poet-friend Imlac. They are to see the world and search for happiness, but after some sojourn in Egypt, where they frequent various classes of society and undergo a few mild adventures, they perceive the futility of their search and abruptly return to Abyssinia.

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 7 contains the final part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 8 contains The Idler, the 103 essays originally published by Johnson in the Universal Chronicle between 1758 and 1760, and published in one volume in 1761. These were more relaxed and...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 3 contains the second part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 2 contains the first part of his Lives of the Poets, his last major work. This was a commission to provide short accounts of over fifty poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 5 contains the first part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 6 contains the second part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 9 includes The Adventurer, the sequel to The Rambler, partly written by Johnson, papers about the famous Dictionary and his edition of the works of Shakespeare, various critical pieces,...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 10 contains a mixture of items political tracts on taxation and current affairs; miscellaneous short works including book reviews and papers on agriculture, French prisoners of war, and...

Dr Samuel Johnson (1709 84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 11 contains poetry in English and Latin, prayers, and a variety of literary forms a fantasy, The Vision of Theodore, Johnson's only play, Irene, Rasselas, which uses an oriental tale and...