The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Dover Books on Literature & Drama)

Written in the evenings of a single week to pay for his mother's funeral, Samuel Johnson's only novel offers a compelling glimpse of the distinguished English writer's moral views. Its rapid execution, it is said, was the result of a lifetime spent contemplating the book's chief topics. A philosophical romance that traces the pilgrimage of an African prince and his companions to Egypt, the parable ponders a number of subjects — among them flying machines, poetry, marriage, and madness.