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Sunday, May 20, 2012

41. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Tobias George Smollett
1771
Around 400 pages

I delayed reading this novel because a large portion of it deals with London and I was still dealing with post-London blues.  In between I read Franny and Zooey, Sister Carrie, and The Interview With a Vampire.  All pretty good and all better than Humphry Clinker.

All right, so it is no secret that I am not a Tobias fan.  At the risk of being repetitive, he is simply not a funny writer and he tries desperately to be like his contemporaries and just fails.  This is supposedly considered his funniest work but I really did not get that.  This book is centered around Humphry who is not really liked by anyone (particularly me).  It is an epistolary novel written from the point of view of six other flat characters.


At least we are finally done with Smollett.  May he rest in peace with his weirdly named characters.

RATING: *----

Interesting Facts:

Last picaresque novel of Tobias George Smollett.

His travels served as his inspiration.

1 comment:

TSorensen said...

I actually liked this one. Sorry it fell through for you.