(JOHNSON, SAMUEL). [KNIGHT, ELLIS CORNELIA].

DINARBAS; A TALE: BEING A CONTINUATION OF "RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABISSINIA."

(London: Printed by Luke Hanfard for T. Caldwell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1800). 178 x 108 mm (7 x 4 1/4"). xii, 309 pp., [1] leaf (ads). Fourth Edition.

VERY ATTRACTIVE CONTEMPORARY FLAMED CALF, flat spine gilt in panels formed by double rules and decorative rolls and featuring an oval centerpiece encircling a four-pointed star with roundel center, crimson morocco label. Front pastedown with bookplate of Franz Pollack Parnau. Courtney & Smith, p. 94. Extremities and joints a bit flaked, occasional very minor foxing and offsetting, but AN EXCELLENT COPY, the attractive original binding completely sound, with boards lustrous, and especially clean, smooth, and fresh internally.

Written in the evenings of a single week to help pay for the funeral of Johnson's mother, "Rasselas" became the most thoroughly translated and disseminated work during the author's lifetime. A generically elusive work (a narrative with the feel of an allegory, but actually mostly a series of dissertations with a thin story line), "Rasselas" accomplishes the impressive goal of being artistically successful, even uplifting, while demonstrating the somber truth that there is no genuine happiness in the world. The work is written in such a way as to allow for a continuation, something that Johnson had actually contemplated as a way of arranging a marriage and a permanently happy ending for his hero. The present pleasing little volume contains such a continuation, written, not by Johnson, but by Ellis Cornelia Knight. A friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds' sister, Knight (1757-1837) studied classics and European languages, and after her mother's death, was placed under Lady Hamilton's care. She became a companion to Queen Charlotte in 1805, but left to assume a similar position with the Princess Charlotte in 1813, giving great offence to the queen. When Knight supported the princess in her refusal to marry the Prince of Orange, the queen dismissed her; thereafter, Knight spent much of the rest of her life travelling in socially fashionable circles on the continent. She produced a number of minor works, an autobiography, and "Dinarbas" (first printed in 1790), which was republished a number of times as a companion piece to "Rasselas." (ST10389)