Green and white patterned cloth binding with red title pate and gilt title on the spine.

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Smollett’s picaresque novel, first published in 1748, is partially based on Smollett’s experience as a naval-surgeon’s mate in the British Navy, especially during the Battle of Cartagena in 1741.

Smollett’s first published work in 1746 was a poem about the Battle of Culloden entitled “The Tears of Scotland”. However, it was The Adventures of Roderick Random, a semi-autobiographical story of a ‘north Britain on the make’ which made his name. His poetry was described as “delicate, sweet and murmurs as a stream”. The Adventures of Roderick Random was modelled on Le Sage’s Gil Blas and despite its scandalous content covering ‘snobbery, prostitution, debt and hinting at homosexuality’, it was published in 1748. After that, Smollett finally had his tragedy The Regicide published, although it was never performed.

Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later generations of British novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.