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Tobias Smollett | |
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| Born | (1721-03-19)19 March 1721 Dalquhurn, Scotland |
| Died | 17 September 1771(1771-09-17) (aged 50) Livorno,Tuscany |
| Occupation | Writer, surgeon |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow University of Edinburgh University of Aberdeen |
| Period | 1748–1771 |
| Genre | Picaresque,satire |
Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon.[1] He was best known for writingpicaresque novels such asThe Adventures of Roderick Random (1748),The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) andThe Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771),[2] which influenced later generations of British novelists, includingCharles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.
Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part ofRenton in present-dayWest Dunbartonshire, Scotland, and baptised on 19 March 1721 (his birth date is estimated as 3 days previously).[2] He was the fourth son of Archibald Smollett ofBonhill, a judge and landowner, laird ofBonhill, living at Dalquhurn[3] on theRiver Leven, who died about 1726, when Smollett was just five years old. His mother Barbara Smollett née Cunningham brought the family up there, until she died about 1766. He had a brother, Captain James Smollett, and a sister, Jean Smollett, who married Alexander Telfair of Symington, Ayrshire. Jean succeeded to Bonhill after the death of hercousin-german, Mr Commissary Smollett, and resumed her maiden name of Smollett in 1780. They lived in St John Street off Canongate, Edinburgh, and had a son who was in the military.
Smollett attended Dumbarton Grammar School and then was educated at theUniversity of Glasgow, where he studied medicine and eventually qualified as a surgeon.[2] Some biographers assert that he then proceeded to theUniversity of Edinburgh, but left without earning a degree.[citation needed] Others state that his career in medicine came second to his literary ambitions at the age of 18,[2] and it was not until 1750, that Smollett was granted hisMD degree at theUniversity of Aberdeen.[citation needed]
In 1739 he went toLondon having written a playThe Regicide, about the murder ofKing James I of Scotland. Unsuccessful at getting this on stage, he obtained a commission as anaval surgeon onHMS Chichester and travelled toJamaica, where he settled down for several years. In 1742 he served as a surgeon during the disastrous campaign tocapture Cartagena. These experiences were later included in the narrative of his novels.[2]
He married a wealthy Jamaican heiress, Anne "Nancy" Lascelles (1721–1791). She was a daughter of William Lascelles, but was unable to access her inheritance as it was invested in land and slaves. On their return to Britain, at the end of his Navy commission, Smollett established a practice inDowning Street but his wife did not join him until 1747;[2] they had a daughter Elizabeth, who died aged 15 years about 1762. His two native languages wereEnglish andScots. He translated famous works of theEnlightenment from other European languages.
Smollett's first published work in 1746[2] was a poem about theBattle of Culloden entitled "The Tears of Scotland".[2] However, it wasThe Adventures of Roderick Random, a semi-autobiographical story of a 'north Britain on the make'[2] which made his name. His poetry was described as "delicate, sweet and murmurs as a stream".[4]The Adventures of Roderick Random was modelled onLe Sage'sGil Blas and despite its scandalous content covering 'snobbery, prostitution, debt and hinting at homosexuality', it was published[2] in 1748. After that, Smollett finally had histragedyThe Regicide published, although it was never performed.
In 1750, he travelled toFrance, where he obtained material for his second novel,The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, another success. Having lived for a brief time inBath, he returned to London and publishedThe Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom in 1753, but this did not sell well and he went into debt. His novels were published by the well-known London booksellerAndrew Millar.[5] Smollett became considered as a 'man of letters'[2] and associated with such figures asDavid Garrick,Laurence Sterne,Oliver Goldsmith,[2] andSamuel Johnson,[2] whom he famously nicknamed "that GreatCham of literature".[6]
In 1755 he published an English translation ofMiguel de Cervantes' novelDon Quixote, which he revised in 1761. In 1756, he became briefly editor of the 58-volumeUniversal History, and editor ofThe Critical Review, from which later he had a successfullibel case brought against him by AdmiralSir Charles Knowles, and a three-month prison sentence, and fine of£100.[2]
Smollett then began what he regarded as his major work,A Complete History of England (1757–1765) which helped recoup his finances,[2] along with profits from his only performed play, a farce,The Reprisal; or the Tars of Old England. After his imprisonment, he used the experience in producing another novel,The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1760).[2]
In 1763, Smollett was ill, perhaps with tuberculosis, and suffered the loss of his only child at the age of 15. He gave up his editorships and, with his wife Nancy, and relocated toContinental Europe, which led to the publication ofTravels Through France and Italy (1766).[2] He also publishedThe History and Adventures of an Atom (1769), which gave his opinion ofBritish politics during the Seven Years' War in the guise of a tale from ancient Japan. In 1768, the year he moved to Italy, Smollett entrustedRobert Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore with selling off the slaves he still owned in Jamaica.[7]
A further visit to Scotland helped to inspire his last novel,The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), published in the year of his death. He had for some time been suffering from an intestinal disorder. Having sought a cure at Bath,[citation needed] he retired to Italy, where he died in September 1771 and was buried in theOld English Cemetery, Livorno.[2]
There is a monument to his memory beside Renton Primary School,Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on which there is a Latin inscription. The area around the monument was improved in 2002, with an explanatory plaque. After his death in Italy in 1771, his cousin Jane Smollett had the Renton monument built in 1774. It comprises a tallTuscan column topped by an urn. On the plinth is a Latin inscription written by ProfessorGeorge Stuart of Edinburgh,John Ramsay of Ochtertyre andDr Samuel Johnson. It is acategory A listed building.[8]
There is also a plaque at his temporary residence inEdinburgh, just off theRoyal Mile at the head of St John's Street, where his wife lived after his death until at least 1785.[9] This states that he resided there in the house of his sister, Mrs. Telfer, for the summer of 1766. A second plaque (dating the building at 1758, making it relatively new at that time) states that he "stayed here occasionally," implying more than one visit.
Smollett is one of the 16 Scottish writers and poets depicted on the lower section of theScott Monument inPrinces Street, Edinburgh. He appears on the far left side of the east face.[2] There are streets named after him inNice, France and in Livorno, Italy, where he is buried.[10]
Laurence Sterne, in hisA Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, refers to Smollett under the nickname ofSmelfungus, due to the snarling abuse Smollett heaped on the institutions and customs of the countries he visited and described in hisTravels Through France and Italy.[11]
Mr Brooke inGeorge Eliot'sMiddlemarch says to Mr Casaubon: "Or get Dorothea to read you light things, Smollett –Roderick Random,Humphry Clinker. They are a little broad, but she may read anything now she's married, you know. I remember they made me laugh uncommonly – there's a droll bit about a postillion's breeches."
InW. M. Thackeray's novelVanity Fair, Rebecca Sharp and Miss Rose Crawley readHumphry Clinker: "Once, when Mr. Crawley asked what the young people were reading, the governess replied 'Smollett'. 'Oh, Smollett,' said Mr. Crawley, quite satisfied. 'His history is more dull, but by no means so dangerous asthat of Mr. Hume. It is history you are reading?' 'Yes,' said Miss Rose; without, however, adding that it was the history of Mr. Humphry Clinker."
Charles Dickens'sDavid Copperfield mentions that his young protagonist counted Smollett's works among his favourites as a child.
John Bellairs referenced Smollett's works in hisJohnny Dixon series, where Professor Roderick Random Childermass reveals that his late father Marcus, an English professor, had named all his sons after characters in Smollett's works: Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphry Clinker, and even "Ferdinand Count Fathom", who usually signed his name F. C. F. Childermass.
George Orwell praised him as "Scotland's best novelist".
InHugh Walpole's fifth novelFortitude, the protagonist Peter refers toPeregrine Pickle as a text that inspired him to document his own memoirs.
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker was adapted for radio in three one-hour episodes in August 2008. It was dramatised byYvonne Antrobus and starredStuart McLoughlin as Clinker andNigel Anthony as Matthew Bramble.
