Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1751

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Three years after the publication of The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), Tobias Smollett produced a second, lengthier work of fiction whose title (rightly) suggests a desire to build on his earlier success. This is not to say that Peregrine Pickle is a mere repetition of is predecessor.

Formally, the novel marks a significant departure in being a third-person, omniscient narrative, unlike the first-person narrative of the quasi-autobiographical Roderick Random. While Peregrine is equally a peripatetic hero, his exploration of the mid-eighteenth century world is undertaken in social rather than geographical terms. The result is a novel centering on a much less sympathetic hero, subject to overt …

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1290 words

Citation: Ross, Ian Campbell. "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 September 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10082, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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