Rasselas.

London: Hector McLean,, 1819. An attractively bound copy of the author's sole novel with the celebrated illustrations of Robert Smirke. Boswell remarked that none of Jonhson's "writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe" (Boswell, p. 185). This work was originally published in 1759, under the title The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale. Johnson purportedly composed it in the evenings of a single week to defray the costs of his mother's funeral. "Rasselas is his classic expression of the journey theme permeating his writings. The creation of this masterpiece of moral analysis involved a complex synthesis of travel archetypes in history and literature that resulted in a unique interpretation of man's perennial quest for happiness. The tale brilliantly exemplifies that creative interaction between travel books and belles lettres so prevalent in eighteenth-century English literature" (Curley, p. 4). Smirke (1753-1845), a painter, an illustrator, and an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, provided large numbers of illustrations for historical and literary texts, and his "original drawings for Johnson's Rasselas, in brown pigment with white highlights, are at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut" (ODNB). McLean issued his first edition using Smirke's drawings in 1803; this is his third edition. Quarto (264 x 205 mm). Early 20th-century red straight-grain morocco by Bayntun for Lauriat Co., Boston, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering and decoration in compartments, floral border gilt to covers, board edges and turn-ins richly gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, two red silk Bookmarkers. Engraved frontispiece and 4 plates, with tissue guards, all engraved by A. Raimbach after R. Smirke. Paper sheet with Worthy Hand and Arrows watermark loosely inserted. Christmas 1919 gift inscription in pencil on initial blank. Spot of wear at head of spine, minor scuffs to covers, occasional faint foxing to margins, small damp stain at head of first two leaves, neat paper repair to margin of p. 191, otherwise internally clean: a very good copy. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, vol. I, 1791; Thomas M. Curley, Samuel Johnson and the Age of Travel, 2009.