Description
Book SynopsisTobias Smollett (1721-71) is best known today as a novelist whereas in the eighteenth century he was primarily regarded as a historian and critic. In Tobias Smollett in the Enlightenment, Richard J. Jones explores the diversity of Smollett's journalistic and literary writings and establishes new connections between Smollett's work and writers of the Scottish Enlightenment. Taking as his focal point Smollett's visit to Nice, between 1763 and 1765, and the account he wrote of it in Travels through France and Italy (1766), Jones argues that Smollett's account should be read as a "pocket encyclopedia" in the tradition of Voltaire, rather than as a conventional "travel narrative." Discussing Smollett's engagement with medicine, fine art, the theater and history, Jones offers a productive juxtaposition of authors, texts and contexts, presenting Smollett as a writer whose Scottish (and particularly Glaswegian) identity informed his involvement in a wider European Enlightenment.
Trade ReviewThe shelf of scholarly monographs on Smollett is short: the only important works in English in recent decades are James Basker's Tobias Smollett, Critic and Journalist (1988), Aileen Douglas's Uneasy Sensations: Smollett and the Body (CH, Jan'96, 33-2591), Jerry C. Beasley's Tobias Smollett, Novelist (1998), and William Gibson's Art and Money in the Writings of Tobias Smollett (2006). A new work on such a major author is therefore welcome. Jones (Open Univ., UK) uses Smollett's travel book, Travels through France and Italy, as a starting point for a series of investigations of the connections between the Scottish writer's works and the Scottish Enlightenment. There are chapters on medicine (Smollett was a physician), literary criticism, drama, and history. This attractive, clearly written volume will be valuable for anyone interested in Smollett's multifarious career, and also for those who study 18th-century travel writing and Scottish intellectual life. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
Table of Contents1 Acknowledgments 2 Abbreviations 3 Introduction 4 i. Smollett and the Enlightenment in Glasgow 5 ii. Travels through France and Italy 6 iii. Attribution 7 Chapter One: A Physical Gentleman 8 i. Smollett and Medicine 9 ii. Water 10 iii. Natural History 11 Chapter Two: A Good Critic 12 i. Smollett and the Fine Arts 13 ii. Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Reid 14 iii. Adam Smith 15 Chapter Three: A Theatrical Divine 16 i. Smollett and the Theatre 17 ii. Novels and Performances 18 iii. Carnival 19 Chapter Four: A Friend of Virtue 20 i. Smollett and History 21 ii. David Hume and the Stuarts 22 iii. George III 23 Conclusion 24 Bibliography
