Of all Johnson's works, "Rasselas" was apparently the most popular.

Rasselas is a noble monument of the genius of its author.

But Rasselas is a book of singular force, and bears the most characteristic impression of Johnson's peculiar temperament.

No prig shall ever persuade me that Rasselas is not a noble performancein design and execution.

Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperour, in whose dominions the father of waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.

Rasselas, a tale with a purpose, is melancholy reading; the Journey to the Western Hebrides has been utterly eclipsed by Boswell's livelier and more human chronicle of the same events.