The Adventures of Roderick Random

by Tobias Smollett, Paul-Gabriel Boucé (Editor)

Overview

A tale of adventure and romance, it is written with great humor and panache. The memorable scenes on board ship which provide an invaluable picture of the British sailor of the day, are drawn from Smollett's personal experience as a surgeon's mate in the navy.

Roderick is the boisterous and unprincipled hero who answers life's many misfortunes with a sledgehammer. Left penniless by his grandfather, a judge, he leaves his native Scotland for London. On the way he meets an old schoolfellow, Strap, who accompanies him on his journey. Together they undergo many adventures at the hands of rogues. While in London Roderick qualifies as a surgeon's mate. He is pressed as a common sailor on board the man-of-war Thunder, and after much misery and ill-treatment returns to England. Here he falls in love with the ravishing Narcissa...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199552344
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2009
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)

About the Author

TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721–1771) was a novelist, playwright, journalist, historian, travel writer, critic, translator, editor, and compiler—an eighteenth-century man of letters in the fullest sense of the phrase.

Tobias Smollett (Author)
TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721–1771) was a novelist, playwright, journalist, historian, travel writer, critic, translator, editor, and compiler—an eighteenth-century man of letters in the fullest sense of the phrase.

O M Brack Jr. (Editor)
O M BRACK, JR., a professor of English literature emeritus at Arizona State University, is coauthor of Samuel Johnson's Early Biographers and coeditor of The Early Biographies of Samuel Johnson. He has edited volumes of the Works of Samuel Johnson published by Yale and is textual editor for the Georgia series the Works of Tobias Smollett. Brack is the curator of the 2009 Johnson tercentenary exhibition at the Huntington Library.

Alexander Pettit (Editor)
ALEXANDER PETTIT is an associate professor of English at the University of North Texas. He is also the general editor of three series: The Works of Tobias Smollett (Georgia), British Ideas and Issues, 1660-1820, and Selected Works of Eliza Haywood.

Editorial Reviews

Although Smollett would write other hit novels, his first foray into fiction, The Adventures of Roderick Random, which has never been out of print, is in many ways his best, a must-read for those familiar with his other works and the place to start for neophytes. . . . [T]his superb edition . . . [contains] copious notes and introductory material, clarifying all matters biographical, historical, political and linguistic and explaining customs, manners and diction, providing the reader with everything he needs to get the most out of this not-to-be-missed treat.

Washington Times - Martin Rubin

[The Adventures of Roderick Random] comes with a crisply informative introduction and explanatory and textual commentaries which give every appearance of reflecting the distinction of the editorial team. . . . Like the other volumes in the series, it is handsomely produced and delightfully illustrated.

Recent Studies in the Restoration and Eighteenth Century - Claude Rawson

Among the huge number of details [in the endnotes] are enough that illuminate specific passages in Roderick Random or establish interesting biographical connections to make the reader’s effort worthwhile. . . . This is a genuinely satisfying book, handsomely produced and aesthetically pleasing, including twenty-seven well-chosen and clearly reproduced full-page illustrations.

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era - Alfred Lutz

While they spend more time on the novel’s literary context and reception, [the editors] also devote adequate space to its cultural politics, touching on an array of issues from imperialism to homophobia . . . . the editors want to define Roderick Random as a work that is ahead of its time, not a product of it—its issues ‘less political’ than ‘existential’.

Modern Language Review - Lee Kahan

This is certainly ‘the most elaborate scholarly edition of Roderick Random yet undertaken[.]’ . . . Smollett was a major talent who appealed to generations of readers and writers, and Roderick Random is up to the very best he ever produced.

New Criterion - Pat Rogers

A reprinting of a literary classic that reflects on its place in the history of literature, The Adventures of Roderick Random is an excellent addition to any community library collection of eighteenth century literature.

Midwest Book Review

"This is a wonderful and important novel and its present editor who provides us with a very fine introduction is one of the great authorities on the period and author."—Gerald J. Butler, San Diego State Univ.

From the Publisher