"Rasselas was a noisily transatlantic, democratizing affair": Freedom and Contexts for Johnson's Writing Vaibhav Daksha College

Thomas Keymer proclaims the first American edition of Rasselas, brought out in 1768 by an Irish immigrant, Richard Bell, most reflective of its “practical as well as philosophical importance”. He observes the interpretative perception of Rasselas by its first American publisher as ‘transatlantic’ and ‘democratising’. Situating the publication of this edition in context of America of 1760s, justifies the content of the statement regarding it. First, it was a time when voice for American independence was gaining prominence, to be shortly followed by independence in 1776; second, the two prominent themes of this novel strikes a very resonant chord with the tenets of American revolutionaries: freedom and pursuit of happiness. Undoubtedly, the philosophy of this fictional work need not be coercively compared verbatim with the movement for independence, or societal structure, or zeitgeist of the time in general, that would be a blatant mistake to consider. Once a work is distributed out, its interpretation is not restricted to author’s intents, and in an ideal literary dialogic scenario, should not be. Contrarily, it is the publisher’s intent that has been reflected more in the way of its reception, and subsequent marketing and...