Home
/
Fiction
/
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Jul 18, 2025 9:42 PM

Author:Samuel Johnson,Paul Goring,Paul Goring

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, leaves the easy life of the Happy Valley, accompanied by his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah, and the much-travelled philosopher Imlac. Their journey takes them to Egypt, where they study the various conditions of men's lives, before returning home in a 'conclusion in which nothing is concluded'. Johnson's tale is not only a satire on optimism, but also an expression of truth about the human mind and its infinite capacity for hope.

Reviews

A copy should be given out with every bus pass.

—— John Sutherland , The Times

A brilliant novel. It is sadly comic and comically sad

—— Anthony Burgess

He was a genuine comic writer, probably the best after P. G. Wodehouse ... He had a lasting influence and was a very good novelist

—— John Mortimer

A bloody funny lovely bloody book... A genius at full throttle

—— Financial Times

In these explicit days, Mr Amis is the laureate of the unsayable, the literary it man

—— Sunday Telegraph

‘Morrison is, to me, the best writer the English-speaking world has ever seen’

—— Danez Smith

‘Morrison’s legacy in commemorating slavery’s survivors will endure and uplift for centuries to come'

—— Aminatta Forna

‘Her every word a caress, her every sentence an embrace, her every paragraph, a cupping of her hands around our faces that said: I know you, I see you, we are together’

—— Jesmyn Ward

‘I have never read anyone else like her . . . She was an opener of doors, doors that seemed they might always be shut, doors shut so tight they seemed not to be doors at all’

—— Mohsin Hamid

‘Her legacy is total excellence . . . she is magnificent, her emotional intelligence is second to none and her bravery was equal to her artistry’

—— Kwame Kwei-Armah

‘Morrison almost single-handedly took American fiction forward in the second half of the twentieth century’

—— Caryl Phillips

‘[Toni Morrison’s] irreverence was godly’

—— Guardian

A beautiful book and it's beautifully written

—— Kit de Waal , Good Housekeeping UK

My favourite book of all time

—— Sareeta Domingo , Good Housekeeping

Morrison's stunning trilogy is an evocation of black life over the past four centuries. It defies summary. Completed almost 25 years ago, these novels top anything produced by any American writer including Hemingway, Updike and DeLillo

—— Trevor Phillips , Sunday Times

[A] beautiful, haunting novel

—— Stig Abell , Sunday Times

More than one of Morrison's books could be classed as masterpieces, but this one is famous for a reason: everyone should read it

—— Bernice McFadden, author of SUGAR , Guardian

A magnificent achievement...an American masterpiece

—— A.S. Byatt , Guardian

A triumph

—— Margaret Atwood , New York Times Book Review

She melds horror and beauty in a story that will disturb the mind forever

—— Sunday Times

Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature

—— New York Review of Books

A work of genuine force. . .Beautifully written

—— Washington Post

There is something great in Beloved: a play of human voices, consciously exalted, perversely stressed, yet holding true. It gets you

—— The New Yorker

Superb. . .A profound and shattering story that carries the weight of history. . .Exquisitely told

—— Cosmopolitan

This is a wonderful novel about slavery, freedom, parental loss and revenants

—— The Week, Thomas Keneally
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved