Tobias Smollett
Tobias Smollett - A Famous Scottish Writer
"The acid-tongued traveller"
Tobias George Smollett (1721-71) The son of Sir James Smollett, a Scottish laird and MP, Smollett was born at Dalquharn, near Dumbarton. He was apprenticed to a surgeon after attending medical classes at Glasgow University. Dogged by poverty, Smollett became a naval surgeon's mate. His early writings were not a success, but his first publication was the much-admired 'Tears of Scotland' (1746), on the cruel behaviour of the Duke of Cumberland after the battle of Culloden. More poems followed and some satirical work, but his novel The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) - based on Smollett's naval career - achieved lasting success. A keen tourist, Smollett visited several countries in Europe, as well as practising in London. He had desultory success though as a writer, despite his picaresque The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) with its fiercely libellous comments on 'high society'. Published in 1771, his The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker is an evergreen favourite; this includes comment on various Scottish locations and his musings on contemporary Scottish golf in which he commented how 'gentlemen of independent fortunes' have played golf for over 100 years 'without ever having felt the least alarms from sickness or disgust' and each player never having retired for the night 'without having the best part of a gallon of claret in his belly'.
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