Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Genre: Classic Literature / Picaresque Fiction / Epistolary Novel / Comedy / Satire

Book Review:
Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker (1771) is a brilliant comic novel told entirely through letters. The hypochondriac Squire Bramble, his shrewish sister Tabitha, and his young nephew and niece travel across Britain — from Bath to London to Scotland. Along the way, they encounter a parade of eccentric characters and enjoy (or suffer) comic adventures. When they hire a naïve, good-hearted young groom named Humphry Clinker, the journey takes an unexpected turn. Smollett’s final novel is also his warmest and funniest — a vivid, bawdy snapshot of 18th-century life. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Angus Ross. A must-read for fans of Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne.