Tobias Smollett

Tobias Smollett's books move among picaresque adventure, social satire, travel narrative and literary criticism. The Adventures of Roderick Random follows a restless protagonist through shifting occupations and social worlds, using reversals of fortune to expose hypocrisy and dependence. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker gathers several letter writers whose conflicting accounts make observation itself part of the comedy. Travels Through France and Italy turns movement, lodging, health and local custom into argumentative travel prose. The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature represents a different side of the same critical energy, judging books within a changing print culture. Across these works, Smollett combines incident with sharp social comparison, allowing multiple voices and unstable perspectives to challenge easy conclusions.