The Mountains of Rasselas

Pakenham Thomas

Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson London, hardcover, illustrated
Ex Libris St. John and Red Cross Hospital Library on endpaper

Rasselas is a tale of the royal princes of Abyssinia, who were condemned to live on the prison-mountain of Wehni until they died or the order of succession called them to the throne. How much of this was truth and how much legend?

The author of Meetings with Remarkable Trees, Thomas Pakenham traveled to Ethiopia to find out. The predicament of the prisoners had been even more melodramatic than previously surmised.

And an incredible archeological discovery was made: a medieval church of the finest style ever recorded. Nearly 40 years after the story was published in 1959, Pakenham returned to the Mountain.

Contents

1. Prologue
2. Addis Ababa
3. At Jacob's Folly
4. Gondar
5. To the Mountain
6. The Happy Valley
7. The Feast of the Epiphany
8. The Ascent of Debra Damo
9. The Return to the Mountain
10. Ghosts
11. To Bethlehem
12. Eureka
13. The Arcana
14. Plans for a Pilgrimage
15. Lenten Fare
16. The Earthly Paradise
17. One More River
I8. Lalibela
19. The Long Walk
20. The Summit
21. Epilogue