Introduction Take notice, that the Decree of the President of Uzbekistan of 3 October, 2019, No. Dp-5843 “On measures to radically enhance the personnel policy

2.3Synopsis
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. 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 be comedically undone in the end, so that Random can, after a long series of adventures, retire to his happily ever after. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker was adapted for radio in three one-hour episodes in August 2008. It was dramatised by Yvonne Antrobus and starred Stuart McLoughlin as Clinker and Nigel Anthony as Matthew Bramble.
Smollett, the only major eighteenth-century English novelist whose work can seriously be called picaresque, came to the writing of novels with a strong sense of Scottish national pride (an alienating element in the London of the 1750s and 1760s), a Tory feeling for a lost order, horrifying experiences as a physician, and a fierce determination to make his way in the literary world. Prolific in a variety of literary forms, he was particularly successful as a popular historian, magazine editor, translator of Cervantes (see Vol. 2), and author of novels about adventurous, unscrupulous, poor young men. His work is marked by vigorous journalistic descriptions of contemporary horrors, such as shipboard amputations or the filthy curative waters of Bath; by a flair for racy narrative often built on violence and sentiment, and for comedy that often relies on practical jokes and puns; and by a great gift for creating comic caricatures. His peppery Travels through France and Italy (1766) was something of a spur to Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey, in which Smollett is referred to as Dr. Smelfungus, who "set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every object he passed by was discolored or distorted---He wrote an account of them, but 'twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings." Smollett's most notable novels are Roderick Random (1748), Peregrine Pickle Pickle (1751), Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753), Sir Launcelot Greaves (1762), which set a precedent by first being serialized in his British Magazine (January 1760--December 1761), and especially The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1771), a relatively mellow work that follows the travels of Matthew Bramble, an excitable Welshman, from his home through chaotic England to idyllic Loch Lomond and back. Bramble himself finds what Smollett had irrecoverably lost---his health---as well as a son from his youth. Smollett died in 1771, the year of the novel's appearance, in Leghorn, Italy, and is buried in the English cemetery there.
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. 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 be comedically undone in the end, so that Random can, after a long series of adventures, retire to his happily ever after.
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
The Adventures of
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, providing a comic and caustic portrayal of eighteenth-century European society. In particular it lampoons the traditional "Grand Tour," whereby Englishmen were meant to acquire civilization by traveling throughout the European continent. In Smollett's version, Peregrine's grand tour ends up 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 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. Although the same characters and themes resurface throughout and there is a definite plot arcing throughout the text, the adventures function independently of one another. The style of the novel, typical of eighteenth-century English fiction, reads almost like a collection of related short stories rather than a cohesive narrative, and there is also a very long and completely tangential story, "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality," inside the main storyline.
Tobias Smollett was the second son of Archibald, the fourth son of Sir James Smollett, of Bonhill. His mother was a Miss Cunningham, of Gilbertfield. The marriage was against the consent of Sir James; but as the couple were without any kind of provision for support, he assigned them the farm of Dalquhurn, which was near his own residence, and here, in 1721, Tobias was born.
Tobias Smollett received his first instruction in the elements of classical learning at the school of Dunbarton, under Mr. John Love, the learned antagonist of Ruddiman; from thence he went to Glasgow, where he appears to have pursued his studies with diligence; and was at length, somewhat against his own wish, apprenticed to Mr. John Gordon, a surgeon of eminence there. His inclinations led him to a military life, and not being allowed to follow them, he is said to have resented the supposed injury by satirizing his grandfather and his master, under the characters of "the Old Judge and Mr. Potion," in his first novel of "Roderick Random." He did Mr. Gordon justice at a subsequent period, by speaking handsomely of him by name in "Humphrey Clinker." When Smollett had scarcely attained his eighteenth year, his grandfather, Sir James, died, neglecting to make any provision for the children of his youngest son; and this, operating with the circumstance before mentioned, gave him the "painful distinction" of being handed down to posterity in the unamiable character of the Old Judge in "Roderick Random."
Tobias Smollett was the second son of Archibald, the fourth son of Sir James Smollett, of Bonhill. His mother was a Miss Cunningham, of Gilbertfield. The marriage was against the consent of Sir James; but as the couple were without any kind of provision for support, he assigned them the farm of Dalquhurn, which was near his own residence, and here, in 1721, Tobias was born.
Tobias Smollett received his first instruction in the elements of classical learning at the school of Dunbarton, under Mr. John Love, the learned antagonist of Ruddiman; from thence he went to Glasgow, where he appears to have pursued his studies with diligence; and was at length, somewhat against his own wish, apprenticed to Mr. John Gordon, a surgeon of eminence there. His inclinations led him to a military life, and not being allowed to follow them, he is said to have resented the supposed injury by satirizing his grandfather and his master, under the characters of "the Old Judge and Mr. Potion," in his first novel of "Roderick Random." He did Mr. Gordon justice at a subsequent period, by speaking handsomely of him by name in "Humphrey Clinker." When Smollett had scarcely attained his eighteenth year, his grandfather, Sir James, died, neglecting to make any provision for the children of his youngest son; and this, operating with the circumstance before mentioned, gave him the "painful distinction" of being handed down to posterity in the unamiable character of the Old Judge in "Roderick Random."
Thus thrown upon the world, without anything to hope for but from his own exertions, Smollett, before he was nineteen, commenced his career of adventure by a journey to London, taking with him "The Regicide," a tragedy written during the course of his studies. What can be more romantic? Without friends or protection he launched upon the troubled sea of life, and during his voyage gained that experience and that insight into character which his admirable productions evince. "The Tears of Scotland," an effusion which came warm from the heart, was written at this period. One of his particular friends has recorded with enthusiastic manner in which it was poured forth. "Some gentlemen, having met at a tavern, were amusing themselves before supper with a game of cards; while Smollett, not choosing to play, sat down to write. One of the company (the late R. Graham, Esq., of Gartmore), who was afterwards nominated one of his trustees, observing his earnestness, and supposing he was writing verses, asked him if it was not so. He accordingly read them the first sketch of "The Tears of Scotland," consisting of only six stanzas. Smollett was at this time settled in London, and tried his fortune in his profession, but failed of success.
About this time he married Miss Ann Lascelles, a lady of great beauty and accomplishments, with whom he became acquainted in the West Indies: he was to have received a fortune of 3000l. with her; but of that sum he obtained only a very small portion, after an expensive law-suit. Having established himself genteelly, the increased expense of house-keeping, which he was unable to meet, urged him to have recourse to his pen, and thus "Necessity, that fertile mother of Invention," gave the impulse which developed his extraordinary talent as a novelist, and produced "Roderick Random" in 1748. The success of this novel was equal to its very superior merit; it brought both profit and reputation to the author. The general opinion that it described his own adventures gave it additional zest, and almost every character was applied to some known individual.
In 1750, Smollett went to Paris, but his prejudices against the French and his ignorance of their language rendered his stay there a short one. The year after he published "Peregrine Pickle," which was greatly read and applauded. His life was now devoted to literary occupation, and he soon published a new translation of "Don Quixote," for which, under the patronage of Don Ricardo Wall, he had obtained a large subscription. He found at this period a short respite from his labours to make a visit to his native country, and to see his mother. Upon his return to London, Smollett was engaged to undertake the management of the "Critical Review," then set up in opposition to the "Monthly Review." His talents were very well calculated for the task he undertook, as he had a prompt and ready wit, and a good stock of general knowledge; but he possessed that irritable temperament which often interfered with his better judgement, and made him deal out invective instead of fair and dispassionate criticism. His life was thus embittered by perpetual squabbles, and he brought upon himself the whole genus irritabile of dissapointed authors. The poetical quack, Dr. Shebbeare, the satirist Churchill, and Dr. Grainger, were among others of less note whom he provoked to retaliation; and an unlucky attack upon Admiral Knowles, who drew him into his toils by a stategem unworthy of a gentleman and a man of honour, terminated in a sentence of imprisonment for three months, and a fine of 100 pounds. In 1758 he brought out his "Complete History of England from the earliest times to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748." This was written in the space of fourteen months - a specimen, as it has ben observed, of "literary industry," a specimen also of literary presumption. Neither his temper of mind nor his pursuits had qualified him to be an historical writer. But the work was written in a clear and easy style, and it was very popular, and was immediately reprinted in 8vo weekly numbers, of which an edition of ten thousand was rapidly sold.

In 1770, he left England again for Italy, writing on the way "The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker." Smollett lingered through the summer, and, after much suffering, died on the twenty-first of October, 1771, at the untimely age of fifty-one years. It is much to be feared that his end was hastened by grief for the loss of his much loved child, and chagrin at unmerited neglect. His widow long continued to reside in the neighbourhood of Leghorn.

"From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,"
From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,
I will freely describe the wretch I despise;
And, if he has sense but to balance a straw,
He will sure take a hint from the picture I draw.

A wit without sense, without fancy a beau,

Like a parrot he chatters, and struts like a crow;
A peacock in pride, in grimace a baboon,
In courage a hind, in conceit a Gascon.

As a vulture rapacious, in falsehood a fox,

Inconstant as waves, and unfeeling as rocks!
As a tiger ferocious, perverse as a hog,
In mischief an ape, and in fawning a dog.

In a word, to sum up all his talents together,

His heart is of lead, and his brain is of feather:
Yet, if he has sense but to balance a straw,
He will sure take a hint from the picture I draw.
The poems, plays, and political writings included in this volume are essential to an understanding of Tobias Smollett and the literary and social currents of eighteenth-century England. In introductions to the separate sections of the volume, Byron Gassman identifies the circumstances that prompted Smollett to undertake these writings, traces the history of their publication and reception, and provides extensive explanations of historical and literary allusions.