English Literature / Unit 11 ENL 1020 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Rasselas and The Vanity of Human Wishes
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The idea
The Vanity of Human Wishes, of seventeen forty-nine, imitates Juvenal's tenth satire on the futility of ambition but ends in Christian hope. Rasselas, of seventeen fifty-nine, written in a week to pay for his mother's funeral, follows a prince who leaves the Happy Valley seeking happiness.
In practice
The futility of wishes; a prince's search.
Where people slip
Both question whether happiness can be found.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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