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Title: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (The Works of Tobias Smollett Series) by Tobias Smollett, Thomas R. Preston ISBN: 0-8203-1537-0 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth Taking the Time to Read Slowly
Comment: Tobias Smollett's 1771 novel, "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker," took me almost two months to read. The novel, a "sort of novel," as Dr. Johnson once said, I think of his own "Rasselas," doesn't really have a plot, which contributes to the pacing, which is slow, but highly enjoyable. From the beginning of April through the end of November, basically from the season of planting through the season of reaping, Squire Bramble, an irascible hypochondriac of a Welshman, and his family engage upon a series of travels which lead them from Wales through England to Scotland and back again.
An epistolary novel, "Humphry Clinker" is no stranger in format to the eighteenth century - however, odd to me was the fact that none of the writers - Squire Bramble, his sister Tabitha, their nephew and niece Jery and Lydia Melford, and Tabitha's waiting woman Winifred - ever receives a response. The letters of the Bramble expedition encompass a wide range of topics, along a range of experience and sentiment, of interaction, which itself is a veritable buffet of later eighteenth century customs, coffeehouse culture, civil engineering, agriculture, speech, fashion, science, moral philosophy, art, and manners spanning Wales, England, and Scotland, both in countryside and cityscape.
As such, the novel has a number of preoccupations - the social and political relations between different countries which comprised the then-British Empire - English-Scottish relations in particular are a focus, some 71 years after the Act of Union, and were pretty fascinating to me. There are a number of references to America, and to the Native Americans, which the Scot Cadwallader Colden had written of only a few years before in his "History of the Five Indian Nations." England's own internal politics are reflected on throughout the novel. The debate over luxury, a hot eighteenth century topic, is constantly in the background of the Bramble family's letters.
The letters of Squire Bramble to his doctor-friend Lewis and Jery Melford's to his college friend Wat Phillips comprise the bulk of the novel, and as with so many epistolary novels, their letters often tell us as much about their circumstances and exploits as they do about the writers themselves. These are both heroes of sensibility, a young and an old whose ages frequently provide interesting takes on the same events. Such can be said about the other writers as well - From the Squire to Jery to Tabitha to Lydia to Winifred - we are given a wealth of perspective and language - valuable lenses all to form our own opinions of the events, such as they are, that transpire in their travels. Their various perspectives on two of the novel's minor characters, the eponymous Humphry Clinker and the combative disputant Scot Obadiah Lismahago (the most cosmopolitan figure among the recurring characters), confer substance, interest, and warmth upon characters who do not themselves write letters.
As valuable and entertaining a travelogue as Voltaire's "Letters Upon England," or Smollett-rival Laurence Sterne's "Sentimental Journey through France and Italy," and as simultaneously celebratory and critical of sentimentality as Henry Mackenzie's "The Man of Feeling," "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" was my first experience with Tobias Smollett, and certainly shall not be my last. Empahses on religion and reason, on intellect and emotion, on the state of marriage, on the Horatian preoccupation with how to live the good life, interest in literature and culture, and an almost universal eye for satire and critique make "Humphry Clinker" well worth taking the time to read slowly. It is a novel which I found both entertaining and edifying. Surely, a "great original."
Rating: 4
Summary: A Fine Trip to 18th Century Life
Comment: A high recommendation for this book lead me to read it. What an enjoyable trip into the past.
The author writes letters as more than half-a-dozen characters, and they are a very interesting batch of folks. Mr. Bramble and his family, Dr. Lewis, Tabitha, and of course, Winifred Jenkins, who can murder the language beyond imigination travel through England and Scotland and tell of their experiences on the trip. Oh yea, let's not forget Chowder. They are a lively batch, with various health and social situations that make for interesting correspondance. The title character, Humphey Clinker joins the party mid-trip, and helps make matters very interesting, starting in as a man-servant. It's best not to discuss the contents of the letters. The discovery while reading is very enjoyable!
Don't expect a very fast read, as the old style English (and Mrs. Jenkins verbal assaults) makes for a somewhat slow pace, and make sure to have a dictionary handy. Some words, even though familiar to the reader, are best looked up for the 2nd or 3rd definition of meaning (such as "ejaculation").
It's very easy to see why early Americans enjoyed this book. A rememberance of life in Old England, it pokes fun at many personalities that they are sure to have encountered. Last suggestion, do as David McCullough did, and read it twice. The second time is much more entertaining.
Rating: 4
Summary: To anyone who still writes letters
Comment: The art of letter writing is in decline. But to anyone who still writes letters, this book is a must. It will delight, inspire, instruct, and thoroughly amuse you. Syndicated columnist, Colin Campbell - The Newspaper Priest. www.newspriest.com
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Title: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (Penguin Classics) by Laurence Sterne, Melvyn New, Joan New ISBN: 0141439777 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Adventures of Roderick Random (Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press).) by Tobias Smollett, Paul-Gabriel Bouce ISBN: 0192837168 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford Worlds Classics) by Samuel Richardson, Thomas Keymer, Alice Wakely ISBN: 0192829602 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Tom Jones (Oxford World's Classics) by Henry Fielding, John Bender, Simon Stern ISBN: 0192834975 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Vicar of Wakefield (Penguin English Library) by Oliver Goldsmith ISBN: 0140431594 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1982 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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