Roderick Random (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Tobias Smollett (Author), David Blewett (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

Roderick is combative, often violent, but capable of great affection and generosity. His father had been disinherited and has left Scotland leaving his son penniless. After a brief apprenticeship to a surgeon, the innocent Roderick travels to London where he encounters various rogues.

Editorial Reviews

Review

(in full The Adventures of Roderick Random) Picaresque novel by Tobias Smollett, published in 1748. Modeled after Alain-Rene Lesage's Gil Blas, the novel consists of a series of episodes that give an account of the life and times of the Scottish rogue Roderick Random. At various times rich and then poor, the hero goes to sea, has romantic entanglements, travels the world, discovers his long-lost father, and marries his true love. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140433325
• ISBN-13: 978-0140433326
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.3 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,094,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read from an Under-represented Period, January 3, 2009

By 

Ken Jacobsen (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roderick Random (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I picked up this book in relation to research I was doing for a class and although I don't usually care for fiction I was completely sucked in and devoured it whole in no time. It's a literary delicatessen full of slices of life from the period.

What makes this book so interesting is Roderick's naivety as a young Scottish man in his early 20s trying to make his way with little or no help in a hostile and socially brutal London, which makes it easy to identify with him these centuries later. And Random as a character can be just as hostile and brutal himself, as he admits. The book is full of real people and adult situations, including Random's own period of recuperation from an unnamed venereal disease, sharing a garrett with a woman with the same problem.

Another fascinating and appalling aspect is Random's involvement in transporting captured slaves for sale in Jamaica, whom he and everyone else regards with no more respect than a cargo of chickens or goats.

I have very little respect for "historical novels" written today that pretend to recreate the past. This book, on the other hand, is the real thing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roderick Random: rogue, realist, and reveler, July 14, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roderick Random (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

In a letter to Alexander Carlyle just before RODERICK RANDOM was to be published, Smollett wrote that the novel "is intended as a Satire of Mankind." Stringing together a seemingly endless stream of incidents as they befall his main character as he makes his way in the world, the book depicts life as sometimes innocent but often cruel. Through the use of farce, mistaken identity, clownish behavior, and tomfoolery Smollett employs all the tricks of the picaresque trade to relate his story. Random is left penniless in Scotland by his father, and he and a chum Strap leave for London. Along the way all kinds of adventures, good and bad, await them. Later Random makes his way to South America aboard a British warship (the earliest novel with a shipboard setting, and one that is autobiographical) where by coincidence he meets his now rich father (disguised as the trader Don Roderigo), who sets up Random with an inheritance and a means to marry. Though scenes in the book can be cruel, the humor throughout is broad and sharp. Whether getting cheated in cards by a con artist or sliding into bed with a beautiful maiden under a false identity, Random seems to experience just about all the vagaries life has to offer.