Tobias Smollett

Tobias George Smollett ( born March 19, 1721 Dalquhurn, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, † September 17, 1771 in Livorno, Italy) was a Scottish physician and writer.

Life

Smollett was the son of a judge and landowner and received his education through private tutors. In the 1730s he began at Marischal College ( University of Glasgow ) to study medicine, but received no formal degree in this subject. After a short stint as assistant to a surgeon in Glasgow, Smollett moved in 1739 to London to his fortune as a playwright to try.

He was, however, so not very successful and traveled in 1740 as a ship's doctor, first on the HMS Chichester, to Jamaica, where he settled for several years. After his return in 1747 he opened a medical practice in London and married a rich Jamaican heiress, Anne Nancy Lascelles ( 1721-1791 ). With the Scottish physician and obstetrician William Smellie he was acquainted.

His first publication was a poem about the Battle of Culloden, but only his picaresque novel Roderick Random, which he had written on the model of Gil Blas by Alain -René Lesage, made him famous in 1748. Autobiographical elements were expanded here with comedy and art of story telling to a picaresque novel. In the following years Smollett collected in France material for his next novel, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, which was published in 1751 and also was a great success. 1752 Smollett settled by Henry Fielding and John Hill pulled into the Paper War of 1752-1753. Ferdinand Count Fathom followed in 1753, ( Count Ferdinand Fathom ), which in some ways already anticipated the later Gothic novel. Smollett was now regarded as a leading literary figure, he was in contact with David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne

In his last decade of life Smollett wrote as a continuation of Hume's "History" " A Complete History of England " (1750 ) and "A Continuation of the Complete History, Vol 5, Ldn. , Baldwin 1760-65 ( ca.2500 Sn., 51 Kpf.u.10 gest.u.gef.Ktn. ), which he considered to be his true masterpiece, the novel Sir Launcelot Greaves also (1760 ) and the trip reports Travels through France and Italy (1766). his last novel, Humphry Clinker that appeared in the year of his death, many readers considered to be his most successful work: Elements of the picaresque novel, the epistolary novel and the travelogue are herein connected artfully into one unit.

For health reasons Smollett spent his last years in Italy, where he died in 1771.

Works (selection)

  • Events of Roderick Random, translated by Johann Georg Büsch. Hamburg 1755. 2 vols.
  • Roderick Random, translated by William Christhelf Sigmund Mylius. Berlin:. Himburg, 1790 2 vols.
  • Mannheim 1802. 4 volumes.
  • ( The books of the abbey Thalem 13-14). Munich and Leipzig. Müller, 1914, 2 vols.
  • The Adventures of Roderick Random on the translation by W. Chr S. Mylius. Leipzig: Insel. 1st edition 1965, 2nd edition 1969. 643 pages.
  • Leipzig:. Island, 1982 592 pages.
  • Munich: . Beck, 1982 592 pages.
  • Events of the Peregrine pickles. 4 volumes. Leipzig: Gleditsch, 1753.
  • Leipzig: Heineck; Copenhagen: Faber, in 1769.
  • Berlin: Himburg. 1st edition 1785, 2nd edition 1789. 4 volumes.
  • ( = The books of the abbey Thelem 15-16). Munich and Berlin: Müller. 1st edition 1914, 2nd edition 1917. 2 vols.
  • Zurich: . Books Gutenberg, 1955 684 pages.
  • Munich: . Winkler, 1966 861 pages.
  • Zurich: . Ex Libris Book Club, 1967 864 pages.
  • Darmstadt University Press, 1967 and 1989, 861 pages..
  • Lausanne: Rencontre. 2 vols.
  • Ferdinand Count Fathom events. Copenhagen: Rothe, 1770-1771. 2 vols.
  • Count Ferdinand Fathom, translated by Friedrich von Oertel. Leipzig and Sorau: Beygang and Ackermann, 1799.
  • Mannheim 1803. 2 vols.
  • Adventures of the knight Launcelot Greaves. Copenhagen: Rothe, 1772.
  • Travel through France and Italy or messages collected from the manners and customs etc. Leipzig 1767th
  • Humphry clinker travel. translated by Johann Joachim Christoph Bode. Leipzig: Weidemann and poor. 3 volumes. 1st edition 1772, 2nd edition 1775, 3rd edition in 1785.
  • Humphry Clinker 's Travels, translated by Heinrich Döring ( = Classische library of the older Roman poet in England 11-13). Braunschweig:. Westermann, 1839, 3 vols.
  • Humphry Clinkers memorable trip, translated by Walter Batt ( = collection Dieterich 212). Leipzig: Dieterich. 1st edition 1959, 2nd edition 1971. 558 pages.
  • Humphry Clinkers travel, translated by Peter Staengle. Zurich: . Manesseplatz, 1996 719 pages.
1751 in literature 1752 in literature 1753 in literature Integrated Authority File
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