The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete

Tobias Smollett built this darker picaresque around one of the least likeable rogues in eighteenth-century fiction. Ferdinand Fathom, born to a scavenging camp-follower and raised on flattery and theft, moves through the courts and drawing rooms of Europe leaving ruined victims behind him, always trading on charm to disguise a cold, predatory nature. Smollett means the book as a study in villainy, holding Fathom up as a warning rather than a hero, and one celebrated night-forest scene of terror helped point the way toward the Gothic novel. Against this bleak portrait he sets the loyal Renaldo and the faithful Monimia, whose constancy answers the schemer’s treachery. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents the complete novel.