In his last and finest novel, Tobias Smollett uses multiple letter
writers to create a very funny and nearly kaleidoscopic vision of life
in mid eighteenth-century Britain. As his protagonists travel about the
countryside on their quest to restore patriarch Matthew Bramble's
health, they unwittingly succeed in uniting Britain across boundaries of
nation, class, religion, and gender. The text of this Norton Critical
Edition is again based on the first edition of 1771. It is accompanied
by explanatory footnotes, illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson for the
1793 edition, and a map by Charles Scavey.
A new "Backgrounds and Contexts" section includes selections from
Smollett's popular early poetry as well as important later nonfiction
writing on history and the novel and the Anglo-Scottish Union, among
others.
"Criticism" is divided into two sections and presents the most important
reviews and scholarly assessments of The Expedition of Humphry
Clinker. "Early Reviews and Criticism" collects four major reviews from
1771 along with Sir Walter Scott's 1821 preface to the novel.
"Contemporary Criticism" focuses on recent scholarship, with its
emphasis on Smollett's connection and relevance to topics of critical
interest, including nationalism, colonialism, the history of the novel,
gender studies, and the histories of religion and medicine. Contributors
include Eric Rothstein, John Zomchick, Robert Mayer, Charlotte Sussman,
David Weed, Evan Gottlieb, Tara Ghoshal Wallace, Misty G. Anderson, and
Annika Mann.
A chronology of Smollett's life and work and a selected bibliography are
also included.
