SMOL'LETT, TOBIA S GEORGE ( 1721-71). A British novelist, descended from an old and re spectable Scotch family having a seat called Bonhill iu the beautiful valley of the Leven, near Dumbarton, Scotland. Ilis grandfather, Sir James Smollett, often sat in the Scottish Parlia ment. was a judge of the commissary court in Edinburgh, and helped frame the articles of union (1707). Tobias wished to enter the army, but was thwarted by his grandfather, who appears in Roderick Bandon, as the unamiable Old Judge. After attending the Dumbarton grammar school, Tobias was sent to the University of Glasgow to qualify for medicine, and was apprenticed (1736) for five years to 1)r. John Gordon, of Glasgow. Much later (1750) lie obtained the degree of M.D. from Marisehal College, Aberdeen. In 1739 Smollett went to London with a tragedy called The Regicide. Embittered by his fruitless at tempts to get it performed. he accepted the post of surgeon's mate on board the Cumberland, which sailed in 1740 to join Admiral Vernon's fleet, then in the West Indies, on the unfortunate expedition to Cartagena. On the return voyage he met in Jamaica a beautiful Creole, whom he brought to London and afterwards married (1747). He left the navy for good in 1744, and settled in London as surgeon. As his profession did not prove remunerative, he turned to 1iteratlH•e. After some parodies, satirical verse, and his vigorous poem, The Tears of Scotland (1746), anent the manner of crushing the Highland rebellion, he published his first novel, Roderick Random. (1748). which met with instant. success. For it he drew largely on family history, his journey from Glasgow to London. his troubles over The Regicide, and his experiences in the navy. Here first appear in fiction the real English tars. As a result of a visit to Paris (1750) he produced Peregrine Pickle (1751), eontaining the brilliant but brutal satire on :Mark Akenside and the notorious "Me moirs of a Lady of Quality" (Frances Hawes. Lady Vane). For the insertion of these memoirs written by Lady Vane herself Smollett is said to have received a handsome fee. After practicing medicine for a short time at Bath, Smollett re turned to London• and settled at Chelsea, where he wrote Ferdinand, Count Fathom (1753), more ideal in motives than his other novels. For some years be was engaged in hack work, translat ing Don Quixote (1755) and writing, among many other things, a history of England (1757 65). On the founding of the CY/tic/a Rm1cu•,
Tory organ (February, 1756), Smollett became editor. He wrote many abusive articles, one of which—an attack on Admiral Knowles—led to a fine of £100 and imprisonment for three months (1759). In the meantime, his farce Reprisal, or the Tars of Old England (1757) was performed at Drury Lane, under the direction of Garrick. Resuming the novel, Smollett contributed to the British Mugut.ine (1760-01) The Adventures of Sir Limnerlot Oreares, an adaptation of Don Quixote. It is of bibliographical interest as the first English novel to appear in a serial. In 1762 lie edited the Briton, a weekly paper started to defend the Tory policy of Lord Bute.
in health and sorely grieved by the death of his daughter (1703). Smollett now spent two years on the Continent. where he wrote his Travels Through France and Italy (1766). The next few years were passed in a visit to Scot land, at Bath. and in London. The most note worthy production of this time is the fierce politi cal satire, The .1dre•nturcs of an Atom (1769). Now utterly unnerved. be left England never to return (December, 1769). At a villa near Leg horn in Italy he wrote Humphrey Clinker (1771), an amusing novel in letter form, based upon his own vain search for health at Bath and in the North. He died September 17, 1771, and was buried in the English cemetery at Leghorn. For fifty years after his death Smollett was ranked high as it novelist: but during the latter half of the nineteenth century his fame unduly sank. Thackeray was the last of the great novelists to praise him. SmoIlett's art is indeed crude when compared with recent craftsmanship. His novels, constructed after the type of Gil Blas and other picturesque adventurers, possess no organic unity. On the other hand, he wrote vigorous English, and created many admirable characters, as Cap tain Bowling, Commodore Trunnion, Tabitha Bramble, and Lismahago. Consult; Chambers, Life and Selections from Writings (London, 1807) ; Life, by D. Hannay (ib., 1867) and by 0. Smeaton (Edinburgh, 1897) ; the Memoirs, by W. Scott. containing a famous comparison be tween Fielding and Smollett, prefixed to novels in the Novelists' Library (London. 1821) ; the Quarterly Review (vol. ciii., 1858) *Works, ed. with excellent memoir by Saintsbury (12 vols., London, 18c15); and Topography of Humphrey Clinker, in Dobson's Eighteenth Cen tury rignettes (second series, London, 1894).