{"product_id":"the-history-of-rasselas","title":"The History of Rasselas","description":"Simply written, funny, and compulsively readable, this fine little book has been heralded as one of the finest examples of English prose and offers a compelling glimpse of Samuel Johnson’s moral views. Dashed out over the course of a single week to pay for his mother’s funeral, Johnson’s only novel was the outcome of a lifetime’s thoughts and experiences. A philosophical romance tracing the pilgrimage of an African prince and his companions to Egypt, Rasselas ponders a number of subjects — romantic love, flights of imagination, the great discoveries of science, and speculations about the meaning of happiness — all of which, Johnson implies, encourage man with false hopes and unrealistic estimates of what life has to offer. Directed specifically against eighteenth-century optimism and, more generally, against all simple formulas for achieving happiness, Rasselas has often been compared with Voltaire’s Candide — which was published only a few weeks before Johnson’s work. Both novels have deservedly attained the status of classics.","brand":"Dover Publications","offers":[{"title":"perpetual","offer_id":44458880663649,"sku":"9780486146652","price":2.75,"currency_code":"KWD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0268\/9869\/4241\/files\/480_b8090734-e410-47f2-a0d8-cbf16f88f77d.jpg?v=1778568464","url":"https:\/\/ebooks.aafaqeducation.com\/products\/the-history-of-rasselas","provider":"ebook.aafaqeducation","version":"1.0","type":"link"}