Rasselas

London, England: Hector M'Lean and Sold By Manners and Miller. Good. 1819. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. This book is in Good only condition. Full, red, straight-grain Morocco binding with gilt decorations to both front and rear covers and gilt lettering and decoration to the spine. AEG (all edges gilt) , plain dark umber endpapers. (Pp iii, 197 plus 4 engraved plates and an engraved headpiece vignette. ) The spine joints of the book cover are cracking. There's rubbing to all edges and joints. The rear cover has several scrapes to the leather. The text pages are mostly clean and bright. There is some burning to pages opposite the engravings, and one small edge tear. " His later works included essays, an influential annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare, and the widely read tale The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson described their travels in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, a collection of biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets. Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome, a condition not defined or diagnosed in the 18th century. After a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In the years following his death, " (from Wikipedia) .