Presented through an ingeniously overlapping and intertwining series of
letters written by six very different characters, The Expedition of
Humphry Clinker is the story of Squire Matthew Bramble and his family's
journey across England and Scotland. From the gouty hypochondriac squire
eager to take the waters in various spa towns to his malapropistic
sister Tabitha, who is keenly looking for a husband, the characters
recount their own experiences, desires and particular version of events,
and in doing so introduce the reader to the extraordinary exploits of
the ostler Humphry Clinker.
Full of decadence, drunkenness and debauchery, and littered with double
entendres, bawdy puns and scatological references, The Expedition of
Humphry Clinker, published only a few months before Smollett's death, is
a biting and sharply observed satire of the luxury and licentiousness of
eighteenth-century society.