The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (Penguin Classics)

The book initially seems to be nothing but a blant, wide-ranging, superficial pop-philosophical potboiler. One almost wants to stop reading and throw it into the bin. Thanks to its relative brevity (100 pages) one gets through. Then one reflects: what the heck was Johnson doing here? One re-reads Paul Goring's introduction; checks things out on wikipedia. Here is the key: the book was dedicated to his dying, beloved mom. It is an account of Johnson's own "choices of life" (the book's main theme), negotiated by the main characters and thus explained to mom. It is a quasi autobiographic, quasi-apologetic farewell to mom, who may not have approved of some of these "choices." Dearest Mom, this is my life, says Johnson, these are the "choices of life" I have made and will continue to make in the future, please accept them and rest in peace. What these choices are, each reader can find out for themselves, reading between the lines and taking note of some cues and curious constellations in the narrative. Enjoy.

It was a popular text book in my High School Education. It combines both historical narration and philosophical knowledge of the oldest Ethiopian society.

Just what I needed to get through school. It's a really well thought out in it's ideas. It's a parable which explains why it's has a bit of an underwhelming finale, therefore it shouldn't be confused with an average narrative story/novel. It has an overall meaningful message signaling the beginnings of the Neoclassical era.

Although this was an interesting book I did have many times where I simply drifted into other pursuits and left the book just sitting there. The story is about a prince and his companions who are determined to find out the way of life and what is the best for them. In the beginning the prince pines to know the outside world and all its woes because he was stuck in a world where pleasure was the only thing he knew. Once they are on their way they discover time and time again that no matter what, whether it was the philosopher, or the hermit, or the isolated scientist, it didn't matter, they all felt that their life was pursued pointlessly and wished for something else.This is something perhaps all young people should read (if they can keep their attention on it long enough), since it does hammer home the old saying the grass is always greener on the other side, and that sayings futility. One must learn to balance life with purpose and knowledge that when you grasp for one thing you inevitably end up losing another which you had. It is much like choosing paths, once chosen the others close up and regret is perhaps all you may have left after that unless you are given to a higher purpose.

The product is exactly what I expected (and what its on the description) and I received it pretty soon. Perfect item and excellent seller, thank you!

Bien

Annoncé état quasi-neuf, il est arrivé abîmé et annoté pour ce prix là autant acheter un neuf!Décevant, un mois d'attente pour ça