The History of Rasselas : Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson Search Amazon for other books by or about Samuel Johnson. Rating: Reviewed by: Derek Peterssen

JUNE 15 One thing I discovered when I was doing some advance reading for Samuel Johnson's Rasselas is that it's utterly impossible to talk about the book without mentioning Voltaire's more-famous Candide. One of those quirks of time and fashion ensured that two dominant men of letters would produce two very similar works at almost exactly the same time.

And both hold up reasonably well. Rasselas is the story of an innocent Eastern prince from a nebulously-defined kingdom. Raised in almost complete seclusion from the rest of the world, he sets out accompanied by an older mentor, his sister and her serving lady to investigate the world. By interviewing everyone they meet as they travel to Egypt, they end up displaying a cross-section of the world as Jonson saw it.

The structure of Candide is virtually the same. The hero, Candide, is an innocent thrust out of the tiny German kingdom he called home. Accompanied by his mentor, Pangloss, he sets out to seek his fortune and discover the world. Candide, however, travels more widely than Rasseleas, venturing as far afield as South America, before eventually settling near Constantinople.

What's interesting is how two similar books can be so very different, as a result of their authors. Rasselas reads almost like a children's book from a modern perspective. It's more clearly a comic novel in the sense that the happy ending is all but guaranteed. The hero, after all, is a prince, wealthy, and healthy. And constantly accompanied by a true sage. The meetings with various people allow Johnson to gently satirize the foibles of his society, like the academics who cut themselves off from the world. But the characters never really engage, with one exception, with the people they meet. They hear about things, rather than have things happen to them, which waters down the impact of the book.

Both Johnson and Voltaire present a fairly negative picture of the world and human nature. Yet both remain strangely optimistic. For all his gentle treatment of his characters, Jonson 's outlook comes through as essentially bleak. For all Voltaire's savage treatment of his characters, his outlook comes across as more benevolent. It's easy to see why Rasselas is so often forgotten, while Candide is still read today. The broad satire of the latter holds up, and its portrayal of a godless, mendacious world eerily parallels our own. By comparison, Johnson himself seems something of a Pangloss. His gentle treatment of his characters and the inevitably happy (if melancholy) ending they reach seems almost Panglossian.

It's interesting to read Johnson's novel. I never knew he'd written one, to be honest, and knew him only as a critic, a poet and author of the Dictionary. Rasselas was thrown together over the course of a few weeks, just to make money. And it shows. The book comes across as overly gentle, lacking bite or satire. Which, given Johnson's legendary wit, is a shame. Candide, by contrast, leaps snarling from the page and demands your utmost attention. If you have time, read them both. But if you only want to read one, make it Candide.