The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

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.

Tobias Smollett (1721-71) was a Scottish author best known for his novels, The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, following which he became a major literary figure associated with the likes of David Garrick, Laurence Sterne, Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson. In 1755 he published the standard translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote and in 1756, he became editor of The Critical Review. His first major non-fiction work was A Complete History of England.