![]() ![]() It was written in anticipation of her funeral. In fact, Johnson wrote Rasselas instead of going to see his mother while she was still alive. It wasn't a way of "defraying" the expenses of the funeral. Though this is still popular belief, Wharton and Mayerson's book, " Samuel Johnson and the Theme of Hope," explains how James Boswell, the author of Johnson's biography, was "entirely wrong in supposing that Rasselas was written soon after his mother's death". Johnson is believed to have received a total of £75 for the copyright. Origin and influences Īt the age of fifty, Johnson wrote the piece in only one week to help pay the costs of his mother's funeral, intending to complete it on 22 January 1759 (the eve of his mother's death). Early readers considered Rasselas to be a work of philosophical and practical importance and critics often remark on the difficulty of classifying it as a novel. The book was first published in April 1759 in England. The book's original working title was "The Choice of Life". ![]() The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, originally titled The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale, though often abbreviated to Rasselas, is an apologue about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. ![]()
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