Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas: An Introduction

Explore the humane realism of Samuel Johnson in a deep dive into his only novel

Learn from Theodore Dalrymple

Theodore Dalrymple, the pseudonym of Anthony Daniels, is an English cultural critic of great distinction. He has written extensively on culture, its contemporary neglect, and its enduring potential.

In this six-week course, Dalrymple will facilitate an encounter with Samuel Johnson, a towering figure of English literature. The course contains the full text and an original audiobook production of The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, which depicts its hero’s “choice of life.”

The novel will show you that human life, far from being perfect—or even perfectible—inevitably contains a large measure of dissatisfaction. Johnson teaches us that the best way forward is not to ignore this fact and embrace the false hope of utopianism, but rather to accept that life involves many trade-offs. The art of life, for Johnson, is largely about making such compromises.

Enjoy a Free Audiobook

This course includes a free audio version of Rasselas, read for you by Theodore Dalrymple, along with the full text of the novel.

Understand Johnson’s humane vision of life

As you delve into Johnson’s novel, the elegant explanations given in Dalrymple’s lectures will allow you to understand the importance of Rasselas and to appreciate the ultimate lessons which the novel teaches.

This course will help you see that the “realism” of Johnson’s vision of human life, one constrained by limitations, choices, and trade-offs, is not at all pessimistic. It is, instead, lucid, liberating—and even cheerful.

Throughout the course, you’ll also be able to savor Johnson’s wonderful prose style as read by Dalrymple in the audiobook provided in the course.

This course is designed for anyone interested in humanities and literature.

This course includes online video, an audiobook, plus text versions of the novel.

• Introduction & The “Happy” Valley
• Introduction to the Course
• Introducing Samuel Johnson
• Unhappy in Paradise
• Finding a Wise Guide
• Escape from Paradise
• Imlac’s Story
• Out of the Valley
• Rasselas’ Search Begins
• Innocence and Experience
• Of Hermits, Philosophers, and Rulers
• Conversations and Excursions
• Private Life Considered
• Marriage & Monuments
• Separation and Sorrow
• Pekuah’s Loss, Nekayah’s Grief
• A Prisoner’s Tale
• The Choice of Life
• Imagination and its Dangers
• Vanishing Illusions
• In Which Nothing Is Concluded