Tobias Smollett
Tobias George Smollett (c. 16 March, 1721 – 17 September, 1771) was a Scottish author, poet, and novelist, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle that generally followed the comedic misadventures of well-meaning but unscrupulous vagabonds through the underbelly of English social life. Smollett wrote during the golden age of the English novel, a time during the 18th-century when English-language authors were, indisputably, producing more fiction than anywhere else in Europe, developing and refining the novelistic form at a remarkable pace. Smollett was a contemporary of the twin titans of the English novel, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson, and although he had much more in common with Fielding than any other author of his period due to their shared genius for comedy, Smollett was markedly different in his humor. While Fielding and most other comic writers of 18th-century England favored outlandish satire, Smollett's comedy is a little more low-key: inspired by the classically-modeled comedies of Ben Jonson, Smollett's novels are more realistic and less outrageous than that of most of the other authors of his period. Smollett preferred to have the comic quirks of his characters be shown rather than told, with the humor emerging from the external actions of his characters. Although always less popular than either Fielding or Richardson, Smollett nonetheless attracted a loyal and dedicated following. His realistic style and his wry sense of humor was a major influence on Charles Dickens, and within his own lifetime Smollett became a close confidante of Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith. He remains one of the best examples of classic, 18th-century English prose, and although his works may seem antiquated to the present-day reader, he is nonetheless one of the literary pinnacles of his generation.
Biograpy
Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton, in present-day West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He was the son of a judge and land-owner, and was educated at the University of Glasgow, qualifying as a surgeon. His career in medicine came second to his literary ambitions, and in 1739 he went to London to seek his fortune as a dramatist, taking with him his spectacularly bad play The Regicide. Although unsuccessful, he obtained a commission as a naval surgeon on the HMS Chichester and travelled to Jamaica, where he settled down for several years and married a wealthy Jamaican heiress. On his return, he set up practice in Downing Street.
His first published work was a poem about the Battle of Culloden entitled "The Tears of Scotland" which was rather popular and proved to be Smollett's only succesful excursion into poetry. However, it was The Adventures of Roderick Random which made his name. It was modelled on Alain-René Le Sage's Gil Blas, and was published in 1748. Smollett followed it up by finally getting his tragedy, The Regicide, published, though it was never performed. In 1750, Smollett took his MD degree in Aberdeen, and also travelled to France, where he obtained material for his second novel, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, another big success. Having lived for a short time in Bath, he returned to London and published The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom in 1753. He was now recognised as a leading literary figure, and associated with the likes of David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne. In 1755 he published a translation of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, which he revised in 1761. In 1756, he became editor of The Literary Review.
Smollett then began what he regarded as his major work, A Complete History of England, on which he worked diligently from 1757 to 1765. During this period he served a short prison sentence for libel, and produced another novel, The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1760). Having suffered the loss of his only child in 1766, he severed all connections with the literary community and went abroad with his wife, the result of which was a travelogue Travels through France and Italy which remains a rather popular work of 18th-century non-fiction. Smollett also wrote The History and Adventures of an Atom (1769), which give his view of English politics during the Seven Years' War under the guise of a tale from ancient Japan.
He also visited Scotland, and this visit helped inspire his last novel, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), published in the year of his death. He had for some time been ailing from an intestinal disorder, and had sought a cure at Bath and eventually retired to Italy, where he is buried at Livorno.
Works
Roderick Random
Roderick Random, Smollet's first novel and one which set the tone for his subsequent, satirical and comedic works that, although often lacking in cohesive narrative structure, make up for it by the sheer humorousness of the characterizations. Roderick Random is not only notable for Smollett's sense of irony and comedy, but also for its extended sequences on life at sea. Smollett, who had first-hand experience as a seaman thanks to his excursions to the Caribbean, is one of the first talented novelists to write convincingly and realistically of naval experience. The novel has thus become, unusually, a resource not only for scholars of literature but also for scholars of English naval history, and some have quipped that if Dickens was the great novelist of London's, Smollett most certainly was England's first great novelist of the sea.
Synopsis
The novel tells the life story, in first-person, of Roderick "Rory" Random, who was born to a nobleman and a lower-class woman and is thus shunned by his father's family. His mother dies soon after his birth and his father is driven mad with grief. After a few years of resentfully paying for Roderick's education, his grandfather finally casts him out after repeated negative reports from Roderick's abusive tutor. Roderick ends up finding his maternal uncle, Tom Bowling, a sailor who attempts to support Roderick as best as he can between voyages.
Roderick's companion through most of the story is Hugh Strap, a simple-hearted barber's apprentice and former schoolmate of Roderick's. The two end up serving twice on British ships, once on a privateer and once on a warship. Roderick spends much of the novel trying to marry a wealthy woman so that he can live comfortably, and to that end he poses as a nobleman several times, including once while he is in France. Roderick's unattainable love interest is Narcissa, whose squire brother refuses to consent to a match and ends up holding Narcissa as a near-prisoner to keep her from marrying Random, only to comedically defeated in the end, so that Random can, after a long series of adventures, retire to his happy ever after.
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle is a picaresque novel, one of Smollett's greatest early successes, first published in 1751, and revised and reissued in 1758. It is the story of the fortunes and misfortunes of the egotistical dandy Peregrine Pickle, and it provides a comic and caustic portrayal of 18th century European society, and in particular lampoons the traditional "Grand Tour", whereby Englishmen were meant to acquire civilization by travelling throughout the European continent. In Smollett's version, Peregrine's grand tour only ends with him getting himself, quite literally, in a pickle.
Synopsis
At the beginning of the novel Peregrine is a young country gentleman, rejected by his cruel mother, ignored by his indifferent father, hated by his degenerate brother, and raised by Commodore Trunnion who is greatly attached to the boy. Peregrine's upbringing, education at Oxford, journey to France, his debauchery, bankruptcy, jailing, unexpected succession to the fortune of his father, and his final repentance and marriage to his beloved Emilia all provide scope for Smollett's satire on human cruelty, stupidity, and greed. The novel is somewhat unusual by today's standards. Rather than being a continuous narrative, it is written as a series of adventures, with every chapter typically describing a new adventure. The adventures are not necessarily chronologically linked and, although the same characters and themes resurface throughout and there is a definite plot arcing throughout the text, it is notable that the adventures function independently of one another. The style of the novel, typical of 18th-century English fiction, reads almost like a collection of related short stories rather than a cohesive narrative, and there is also a very long totally tangential story, "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality", inside the main story
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Rousseau, George S. (1982). Tobias Smollett: Essays of Two Decades (Edinburgh: T&T Clark).
- Rousseau, George S. (2004). Nervous Acts: Essays on Literature, Culture and Sensibility. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403934541 (Paperback) ISBN 1403934536 (Hardcover)
External links
- Works by Tobias Smollett. Project Gutenberg
- Online editions of his works
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