Three years after the publication of

(1748), Tobias Smollett produced a second, lengthier work of fiction whose title (rightly) suggests a desire to build on his earlier success. This is not to say that

is a mere repetition of is predecessor.

Formally, the novel marks a significant departure in being a third-person, omniscient narrative, unlike the first-person narrative of the quasi-autobiographical Roderick Random. While Peregrine is equally a peripatetic hero, his exploration of the mid-eighteenth century world is undertaken in social rather than geographical terms. The result is a novel centering on a much less sympathetic hero, subject to overt authorial criticism, whose eventual triumph is as much over his own failings as over a

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Citation: Ross, Ian Campbell. "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10082, accessed 25 April 2024.]