The Adventures of Roderick Random

Tobias Smollett’s first novel follows a young Scotsman, cast off by a cruel grandfather, who must make his way through a brutal and often absurd eighteenth-century world. Roderick trains as a surgeon’s mate, is press-ganged into the Royal Navy, endures a disastrous expedition to Cartagena that Smollett had witnessed firsthand, and drifts through London, France, and the West Indies while pursuing his beloved Narcissa. The episodes are packed with swindlers, snobs, and quacks, drawn with a satirist’s relish for cruelty and hypocrisy. Rough, restless, and often very funny, the book helped establish the English novel of the road and drew heavily on the author’s own hard years at sea. Free PDF and EPUB edition.