Synopses & Reviews
Roderick Random (1748), Smollett's first novel, is full of the dazzling vitality characteristics of all his work, as well as of his own life. Roderick is the boisterous and unprincipled hero who answers life's many misfortunes with a sledgehammer. Left penniless, he leaves his native Scotland for London and on the way meets Strap, and old schoolfellow. Together they undergo many adventures at the hands of scoundrels and rogues. Roderick qualifies as a surgeon's mate and is pressed as a common soldier on board the man-of-war Thunder. In a tale of romance as well as adventure, Roderick also finds time to fall in love... Smollett drew on his own experiences as a surgeon's mate in the navy for the memorable scenes on board ship, and the novel combines documentary realism with great humor and panache.
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Review
"This is a wonderful and important novel and its present editor who provides us with a very fine introduction is one of the great authorities on the period and author."--Gerald J. Butler, San Diego State Univ.
Synopsis
Tobias Smollett was an 18th century Scottish author. He was educated at the University of Glasgow with the intent of following a career in medicine. He traveled to London to become a playwright and when that failed he became a naval surgeon sailing on the Chichester to Jamaica where he lived for several years. The Adventures of Roderick Random was published in 1748. This picaresque novel is also a satire of the picaresque novels of the period. Random was the son of a nobleman and a lower class woman. Shortly after Random's birth his mother dies and his father goes mad from grief. The family of his father shuns him. After his father's family throws him out Roderick and his friend Hugh Strap, a simple-hearted barber's apprentice and former schoolmate of Roderick's, end up serving twice on British ships. Random spends most of his time on land trying to marry a wealthy woman so he can live in comfort