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A review by bluegraybox
Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett
3.0
An enjoyable mix of romantic comedy, social commentary, and travelogue. Caveat that it's from 1771, early in the evolution of the novel. It's not exactly tightly written: there's not much of a story arc, it's rambling, and it gets a bit long-winded in places. But still fun if you have the patience to go along for the ride.
The plot, such as it is, is romantic-comedy ridiculous, full of absurd attachments, mistaken identities, implausible coincidences, ill-advised pranks, and other questionable life choices. All surprisingly durable elements of the form.
It's more interesting to me as a personal, ground-level view of a period of dramatic change in British history. The union with Scotland was still relatively recent, trade and economic growth were starting to really ramp up, and the cities were growing as centers of culture. The story is told in a series of letters from the various members of an old country squire's family and household as they travel around England and Scotland.
Smollett was a Scotsman who lived in London for almost all his adult life. His parents would have been born in an independent Scotland, and the various rebellions (all that Outlander stuff) didn't die out until he was in his mid-twenties. His characters debate the question of what each country lost or gained by the union, and throughout the book they call out and argue against the prejudices of the English toward the Scots.
The old social order was being upended as the balance of economic power was shifting from land to trade. London and the spa towns were growing as social centers for the country gentry, and successful merchants were buying country estates. Industrial cities were booming, and Scotland was emerging as a center of learning. Squire Bramble, clearly Smollett's alter ego, rails throughout against the crowding and filth of the towns and the wasteful luxury of the nouveau riche. But his young niece and nephew are thrilled by the liveliness and variety of the cities and somewhat less enamored of pastoral charms.
One surprising aspect of the book is how much of the social commentary, both positive and critical, turns out to be about specific, real, identifiable people (including Smollett himself and his hangers-on). Names are elided in the text (Lord C—), but that's apparently a fig leaf against libel suits; the extensive end notes in the Penguin Classics edition not only identify everyone, but often include details of their personal histories with Smollett. So some of what seems like broad social commentary is revealed as personal score-settling.
On that note, I would definitely recommend springing for an annotated edition if you're going to read this. The text is perfectly comprehensible, but a lot of words have changed meaning or fallen out of use in the last couple centuries, and there's a fair amount of regional dialect (as well as some mangling of terms by the less literate characters).
The plot, such as it is, is romantic-comedy ridiculous, full of absurd attachments, mistaken identities, implausible coincidences, ill-advised pranks, and other questionable life choices. All surprisingly durable elements of the form.
It's more interesting to me as a personal, ground-level view of a period of dramatic change in British history. The union with Scotland was still relatively recent, trade and economic growth were starting to really ramp up, and the cities were growing as centers of culture. The story is told in a series of letters from the various members of an old country squire's family and household as they travel around England and Scotland.
Smollett was a Scotsman who lived in London for almost all his adult life. His parents would have been born in an independent Scotland, and the various rebellions (all that Outlander stuff) didn't die out until he was in his mid-twenties. His characters debate the question of what each country lost or gained by the union, and throughout the book they call out and argue against the prejudices of the English toward the Scots.
The old social order was being upended as the balance of economic power was shifting from land to trade. London and the spa towns were growing as social centers for the country gentry, and successful merchants were buying country estates. Industrial cities were booming, and Scotland was emerging as a center of learning. Squire Bramble, clearly Smollett's alter ego, rails throughout against the crowding and filth of the towns and the wasteful luxury of the nouveau riche. But his young niece and nephew are thrilled by the liveliness and variety of the cities and somewhat less enamored of pastoral charms.
One surprising aspect of the book is how much of the social commentary, both positive and critical, turns out to be about specific, real, identifiable people (including Smollett himself and his hangers-on). Names are elided in the text (Lord C—), but that's apparently a fig leaf against libel suits; the extensive end notes in the Penguin Classics edition not only identify everyone, but often include details of their personal histories with Smollett. So some of what seems like broad social commentary is revealed as personal score-settling.
On that note, I would definitely recommend springing for an annotated edition if you're going to read this. The text is perfectly comprehensible, but a lot of words have changed meaning or fallen out of use in the last couple centuries, and there's a fair amount of regional dialect (as well as some mangling of terms by the less literate characters).