Further Reading
- Baker, Sheridan, "Rasselas: Psychological Irony and Romance," Philological Quarterly 45, No. 1 (January 1966): 249-61. (Examines Rasselas as an ironic form of the popular eighteenth-century genre of oriental romance, suggesting that it reflects Johnson's ironic views of human nature.)
- Chapman, R. W., Introduction to The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale by Samuel Johnson, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927, pp. ix-xxi. (Provides a thorough textual history of Rasselas, including the circumstances under which it was written.)
- Clifford, James L., and Donald J. Greene, "Rasselas and Other Prose Fiction," Samuel Johnson: A Survey and Bibliography of Critical Studies, University of Minnesota Press, 1970, pp. 225-33. (Includes a bibliography of primary editions of Rasselas and secondary sources.)
- Hardy, J. P., "Rasselas," Samuel Johnson: A Critical Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, pp. 127-48. (Offers an essentially positive reading of Rasselas, finding that the repeated diversions and constant motion of the narrative reflect the need for both hope and continuous movement in human life.)
- Joost, Nicholas, "Whispers of Fancy; or, The Meaning of Rasselas," Modern Age: A Conservative Review 1, No. 2 (Fall 1957): 166-73. (Focuses on Rasselas as both a moral and religious work, finding its basic assumptions grounded in Christianity and a "faith in authority," rather than in rational proof.)
- Kenney, William, "Rasselas and the Theme of Diversification," Philological Quarterly 38, No. 1 (January 1959): 84-89. (Argues that the diverse and sundry activities engaged in by the principal characters in Rasselas illustrate that "life in familiar surroundings can be made tolerable if the right principles are followed.")
- Kolb, Gwin J., "Sir Walter Scott, 'Editor' of Rasselas," Modern Philology 89, No. 4 (May 1992): 515-18. (Attempts to demonstrate Scott's link to 1805 and 1819 editions of Rasselas.)
- Kolb, Gwin J., Introduction to The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. XVI: Rasselas and Other Tales, Yale University Press, 1990, pp. xix-lxx. (Discusses the work's publication history and reviews its orientalist sources, generic precedents, and contemporary critical reception.)
- Lockhart, Donald M., "'The Fourth Son of the Mighty Emperor': The Ethiopian Background of Johnson's Rasselas," PMLA 78 (December 1963): 516-28. (Details Johnson's likely sources for the Abyssinian settings of Rasselas; also includes an appendix listing pre-1759 European works containing information on Ethiopia.)
- Mace, Nancy A., "What Was Johnson Paid for Rasselas?" Modern Philology 91, No. 4 (May 1994): 455-58. (Uses evidence from an eighteenth-century copyright lawsuit to explore the publication history of Rasselas.)
- McIntosh, Carey, "Rasselas," The Choice of Life: Samuel Johnson and the World of Fiction, Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 163-212. (Delineates the diverse modes of fiction in Rasselas and considers them in the context of related Enlightenment texts, including Voltaire's Candide and the philosophy of Isaac Newton.)
- Munns, Jessica, "The Interested Heart and the Absent Mind: Samuel Johnson and Thomas Otway's The Orphan," ELH 60, No. 3 (Fall 1993): 611-23. (Compares themes of desire in Rasselas and the cited Restoration tragedy by Otway, finding that Johnson's later text reflects a gloomy, more "modern" alienation from life.)
- Peake, Charles, Introduction to 'Rasselas' and Essays, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967, pp. xxix-xxxvii. (Describes Rasselas as an "argument," suggesting that the work is pessimistic only for those who do not share Johnson's belief in immortality.)
- Walker, Robert G., "A Reading of Rasselas," Eighteenth-Century Arguments for Immortality and Johnson's Rasselas, English Literary Studies, 1977, pp. 35-63. (Agrees with Boswell's contention that Johnson attempted to instill hope in his readers by pointing them toward eternal, rather than earthly, happiness. Walker finds that in Rasselas desire is seen as insatiable on earth, which leads one to look toward immortality for everlasting happiness.)
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