Tobias Smollett’s first novel,
The Adventures of Roderick Randomappeared when its author was just twenty-seven. A first-person narrative, it
offers the youthful hero’s own account of his colourful (mis)adventures in Scotland, England, France, the West Indies, Africa, and South America, prior to his restoration to the family estate from which he had been unjustly expelled in the novel’s opening chapters.
Roderick is the son of a father who, marrying without his own father’s consent, is expelled from home, disappearing shortly after his wife, Roderick’s mother, dies subsequent to childbirth. Neglected by a vengeful grandfather, the hero is a gentleman forced by circumstances to make his own way in a world constantly disposed to subordinate the claims of inherited rank and
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Citation: Ross, Ian Campbell. "The Adventures of Roderick Random". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10081, accessed 23 April 2024.]
