Special Collections
Book of the Month, August 2009
Rasselas
Samuel Johnson
London: H. McLean, 1819
[S.L.] IV [Rambach – 1819] fol.
Samuel Johnson wrote Rasselas during the evenings of a week in 1759 to pay for his mother’s funeral and settle her debts. It explores and exposes the vanity of the human search for happiness. In it, Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, goes to Egypt with his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah and the philosopher Imlac, in order to study the various conditions of men’s lives. In their encounters with scholars, astronomers, shepherds, hermits, and poets, they are disillusioned, and go home. The novel instantly became popular, undergoing 43 English-language editions by the end of the eighteenth century as well as translations into French (1760), German (1762) and Italian (1791).
The edition here was purchased by Sir Louis Sterling for his collection of first and fine editions of English literature on account of its three engravings by Abraham Raimbach (1776-1843), done from paintings by Robert Smirke (1743-1845). Smirke’s prolific output included several paintings on literary themes, most notably on Shakespeare but also, for example, on the Arabian Nights and Don Quixote. He often produced his work in small format to facilitate its reproduction as engravings.
shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 
020 7862 8470
