Tobias Smollett - summary PDF

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Summary Squire Matthew Bramble, who owns large estates in Wales, is an eccentric and skeptical gentleman. With him lives his sister, Miss Tabitha Bramble, a middle-aged woman with matrimonial hopes that exceed probability. Painfully afflicted with gout, the squire sets out for Bath, England, to try the waters, but he has few hopes of their healing properties. His sister goes with him, as does her servant, Winifred Jenkins, the squire’s manservant, and, at the last minute, his orphaned niece and nephew, Lydia and Jerry Melford. The young Melfords are Squire Bramble’s wards. Lydia has been in boarding school, where she unfortunately fell in love with an actor named George Wilson, a circumstance Squire Bramble hopes she will soon forget among the bright and fashionable gatherings at Bath. Her brother, who just finished his studies at Oxford, hopes to fight a duel with the actor, but no opportunity to defend his sister’s honor yet presents itself to his satisfaction. On the way to Bath, George Wilson makes his way into Squire Bramble’s lodgings on the pretext of being a Jewish peddler selling glasses. When in a whisper he makes himself known to Lydia, she orders Winifred Jenkins to follow him and talk with him. The maid comes back in a great flurry. The actor told her that Wilson is not his real name, that he is a gentleman, and that he intends to sue for Lydia’s hand in his proper character. In her excitement, however, the maid forgets Wilson’s real name. There is nothing for poor Lydia to do but to conjecture and to daydream as the party continues on toward Bath. Arriving at Bath without further incident, the party enters the festivities there with various degrees of pleasure. Tabitha tries to get proposals of marriage out of every eligible man she meets. The Squire becomes disgusted with the supposed curative powers of the waters that are drunk and bathed in by people with all sorts of infirmities trying to regain their health. Lydia is still pining for Wilson, and Jerry enjoys the absurdity of the social

gatherings. Hoping to raise his niece’s spirits, Squire Bramble decides to go on to London. They travel only a short distance toward London when the coach overturns. In the excitement, Miss Tabitha’s lapdog bites the Squire’s servant. Miss Tabitha makes such loud complaint when the servant kicks her dog in return that the Squire is forced to discharge the man on the spot. He also needs another postilion, since Miss Tabitha declares herself unwilling to drive another foot behind the clumsy fellow who overturned the coach. The Squire hires a ragged country fellow named Humphry Clinker to take the place of the unfortunate postilion, and the party goes on to the next village. Miss Tabitha is shocked by what she calls Humphry’s nakedness, for he wears no shirt. The maid adds to the chorus of outraged modesty. Yielding to these female clamors, the Squire asks about Humphry’s circumstances, listens to the story of his life, gruffly reads him a lecture on the crimes of poverty and sickness, and gives him a guinea for a new suit of clothes. In gratitude, Humphry refuses to be parted from his new benefactor and goes on with the party to London. In London, they are well entertained by a visit to Vauxhall Gardens as well as by several public and private parties. Squire Bramble is disconcerted to learn that Humphry is a preacher by inclination and that he is giving sermons in the manner of the Methodists. Miss Tabitha and her maid are already among Humphry’s followers. The Squire attempts to stop what he considers either hypocrisy or madness on Humphry’s part. Miss Tabitha, disgusted with her brother’s action, begs him to allow Humphry to continue his sermons. The family is shocked to learn one day that Humphry was arrested as a highway robber and is in jail. When the Squire arrives to investigate the case, he discovers that Humphry is obviously innocent of the charge against him; he learns that the charge was placed by a former convict who makes money by turning in criminals to the government. Humphry makes a fine impression on the jailer and his family, and he converts several of his fellow prisoners. The Squire finds the man who supposedly was robbed and gets

him to testify that Humphry is not the man who committed the robbery. In the meantime, Humphry preaches so eloquently that he keeps the prison taproom empty of customers. No sooner does this become evident than he is hurriedly released. Squire Bramble promises to allow him to preach his sermons unmolested. Leaving London, the travelers continue north, stopping in Scarborough, where they go bathing. Squire Bramble undresses in a little cart that can be rolled down into the sea, so that he is able to bathe nude with the greatest propriety. When he enters the water, he finds it much colder than he expected and gives several shouts as he swims away. Hearing these calls from the Squire, Humphry thinks his good master is drowning and rushes fully clothed into the sea to rescue him. He pulls the Squire to shore, almost twists off his master’s ear, and leaves the modest man shamefaced and naked in full view upon the beach. Humphry is forgiven, however, because he meant well. At an inn in Durham, the travelers make the acquaintance of Lieutenant Lismahago, who seems somewhat like Don Quixote. The Lieutenant, regaling the company with tales of his adventures among the Indians of North America, captures the heart of Miss Tabitha. Squire Bramble is also charmed with the conversation of the crusty retired soldier and makes plans to meet him later on in their journey. The group, especially Winifred, become more and more fond of Humphry as time goes on. After a short and frivolous flirtation with Jerry’s part-time valet, she settles down to win Humphry as a husband. The trip continues through Scotland. In Edinburgh, Lydia faints when she sees a man who looks like Wilson, which shows her uncle that she did not yet forget her actor. After visiting several parts of Scotland and enjoying the most gracious hospitality everywhere, the party continues by coach back to England. Lieutenant Lismahago rejoins the party, and Miss Tabitha renews her designs on him. Just outside Dumfries, the coach overturns in the middle of a stream. Jerry and Lismahago succeed in getting the women out of the water and Humphry stages a heroic rescue of the Squire, who is caught in the bottom of the coach. They find lodgings at a

nearby inn until the coach can be repaired. While all are gathered in the parlor of a tavern, Squire Bramble is accosted by an old college friend named Dennison, a successful farmer of that county. Mr. Dennison knows the Squire only as Matthew Lloyd, a name he took for a while to fulfill the terms of a will. When Humphry hears his master called Lloyd, he rushes up in a flutter of excitement and presents the Squire with certain papers he always carries with him. These papers prove that Humphry is the Squire’s natural son. Squire Bramble graciously welcomes his offspring and presents him to the rest of his family. Humphry is overcome with pleasure and shyness. Winifred is afraid that his parentage will spoil her matrimonial plans, but Humphry continues to be the mild religious man he was before. The Squire also learns that the actor who calls himself Wilson is really Dennison’s son, a fine, proper young man who ran away from school and became an actor only to escape a marriage his father planned for him. He tells his father about his love for Lydia, but Dennison does not realize that the Mr. Bramble mentioned as her uncle is his old friend Matthew Lloyd. The two young lovers are reunited. Lieutenant Lismahago asks for Miss Tabitha’s hand in marriage, and both the Squire and Miss Tabitha eagerly accept his offer. The whole party goes to stay at Mr. Dennison’s house while preparations are underway for the marriage of Lydia and George. The coming marriages prompt Humphry to ask Winifred for her hand, and she, too, says yes. The three weddings are planned for the same day. George and Lydia are an attractive couple. The Lieutenant and Tabitha seem to be more pleasant than ever before. Humphry and Winifred both thank God for the pleasures he sees fit to give them. The Squire plans to return home to the tranquillity of Brambleton Hall and the friendship of his invaluable doctor there.

Characters Discussed Matthew Bramble

Matthew Bramble, a Welsh bachelor who, while traveling in England and Scotland, keeps track of his affairs at Brambleton Hall through correspondence with Dr. Richard Lewis, his physician and adviser. Bramble, an eccentric and a valetudinarian, writes at great length of his ailments—the most pronounced being gout and rheumatism—and gives detailed accounts of his various attacks. With the same fervor that he discusses personal matters—health and finances—he launches into tirades on laws, art, mores, funeral customs, and the social amenities of the various communities he and his party pass through on their travels. As various members of the entourage become attracted to one another and are married, and the group plans to return to Brambleton Hall, Bramble senses that his existence has been sedentary. In his newfound interest of hunting, he changes from an officious, cantankerous attitude toward the affairs of others. He writes Lewis that had he always had something to occupy his time (as he has in hunting), he would not have inflicted such long, tedious letters on his friend and adviser. Tabitha Bramble Tabitha Bramble, his sister. She is the female counterpart of her brother in telling her correspondents of the annoyances of everyday life. Hers is a more personal world than her brother’s, people being of more importance than ideas and things. With little likelihood of a change in interests, Tabitha does return home a married woman. Jerry Melford Jerry Melford, the nephew of Matthew and Tabitha, whose letters to a classmate at Cambridge, where Jerry is regularly a student, give a more objective account of incidents of travel and family. With the articulateness of the scholar and the verve of youth, Jerry describes the lighter side of everyday happenings. In his final correspondence, he admits to his friend that in the midst of matrimonial goings-on he has almost succumbed to Cupid. However, fearing that the girl’s qualities—frankness, good humor, handsomeness, and a genteel fortune—may not be permanent, he passes off his thought as idle reflections.

Lydia Melford Lydia Melford, his sister. The recipient of her letters, Miss Letitia Willis, is the object of Jerry’s “idle reflections.” Lydia, just out of boarding school, is concerned in her letters with the styles and movement of the young in various stops the party makes. Her primary concern, however, is with the presence or absence of young men. Lydia, it is learned, is carrying on a correspondence with a young actor, with Miss Willis acting as a go-between. A duel between the young man and Jerry is averted, but he continues to show up at various stages of the journey in various disguises. Lydia marries him after he has proved himself a young man of rank and wealth. Winifred (Win) Jenkins Winifred (Win) Jenkins, the maid, and the fifth of the letter writers whose correspondence makes up the story. Her correspondent is another servant at Brambleton Hall. Winifred’s spelling exceeds all other known distortions of the English language. She sees people riding in “coxes,” visits a zoo where she sees “hillyfents,” looks forward to getting back “huom,” and closes her letters with “Yours with true infection.” Yet such ineptness does not hamper her personal achievements; able to make herself attractive, she is won by the natural son of Matthew Bramble. In the last letter in the book, Win makes her position clear to her former fellow servant, for she plans to return home as a member of the family rather than as a domestic. She reminds her correspondent that “Being, by God’s blessing, removed to a higher spear, you’ll excuse my being familiar with the lower servants of the family; but as I trust you’ll behave respectful, and keep a proper distance, you may always depend upon the good will and purtection of Yours W. Loyd.” Humphry Clinker Humphry Clinker, the country youth later revealed as Matthew Loyd, the illegitimate son of Matthew Bramble. Clinker, a poor, ragged ostler, is taken on the trip by Bramble after a clumsy coachman has been dismissed. Clinker proves to be the soul of good

breeding, a devout lay preacher, and a hero in saving Bramble from drowning. Quite by accident, he hears Bramble addressed as Matthew Loyd, at which time Clinker produces a snuff box containing proof of his parentage. Bramble explains his having used the name Loyd as a young man for financial reasons and accepts Clinker as his son when “the sins of my youth rise up in judgment against me.” Clinker, under his legal name, marries Winifred Jenkins. George Dennison George Dennison, the young actor who successfully follows the party in pursuit of Lydia’s hand. George has masqueraded as an actor, Wilson, to avoid an unwelcome marriage being forced on him by his parents. His status in rank and wealth are proved by his father’s and Bramble’s recognition of each other as former classmates at Oxford. Lieutenant Obadiah Lismahago Lieutenant Obadiah Lismahago, a Scottish soldier who joins the party at Durham. Lismahago’s shocking stories of the atrocities he suffered as a captive of the American Indians entertain the party and win the devotion of Miss Tabitha. Lismahago’s manner of doing things is best illustrated by his wedding present to Tabitha: a fur cloak of American sables, valued at eighty guineas. Mr. Dennison Mr. Dennison and Mrs. Dennison Mrs. Dennison, country gentry and George Dennison’s parents.

Critical Evaluation The Expedition of Humphry Clinker has often been called the greatest of the epistolary novels, a genre very popular during this time, and an outstanding example of English

humor. The novel is also considered by many critics to be the best of Tobias Smollett’s works. First published in the year of the author’s death, the lively novel was written while Smollett, like his character Matthew Bramble, was in retirement and seeking help for his failing health. Despite the novel’s artful treatment of the effect of an individual’s health on character and mentality, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker caters delightfully to the tastes of its eighteenth century audience. Eighteenth century readers thrived on novels of the exotic, and Smollett focuses primarily on travel, distant societies, and manners. At the same time, however, he lends that same exotic excitement to the travels of Bramble and his party through England, Scotland, and Wales. Smollett combines his audience’s thirst for the remote with their increasing desire to learn more about history and social structure, particularly their own. The structure of The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is at first glance deceptively simple. As an epistolary novel, it lends itself readily to a straightforward, chronological structure. Dates and locations are given with every letter; even directions are given about where the author will be to receive an answer by return mail. Nevertheless, it is not the passing of time that is important: Nothing really changes over time; no one’s opinions change; Lydia continues to love Wilson; Jerry continues to despise him; Tabitha continues to hope for masculine attention; Clinker continues to devote himself to a humble way of life; and Matthew Bramble continues to reaffirm his sense of distinct social divisions. Instead, action is of prime importance. Although the conclusion of the novel seems to imply a tremendous change of orientation toward life, this is deceptive. The social structure had been tampered with by chance, but now it has been rectified and all continue to love and despise as before; only the outer semblance of the objects has changed in having been returned to what it should have been in the first place. The novel also has picaresque aspects in being episodic and treating various levels of society, but the reader is led to ask, who is the picaro? He is not the titular hero, who actually appears long after the novel is under way. It is Bramble, a type of picaro who appeared often in the eighteenth century. He is neither a criminal with loose morals nor a sympathetic antihero but rather a reflection of the author himself. In his character of Bramble, Smollett is a moralizer, which allows Smollett to unify the novel through humor.

Beyond that, however, Smollett-Bramble is that special kind of moralizer, an idealist. According to Bramble’s view of humanity, society is to be separated into strict social classes that give society order; with order, humans are essentially safe from the many bothersome problems that would otherwise prevent them from pursuing the style of life to which they feel entitled. Such is the latent subject of the majority of Bramble’s letters to his dear Dr. Lewis; but the ironic and humorous vehicle for the moralistic treatises is the description of his encounters with the odd assortment of “originals.” While these figures for the most part concur with Bramble’s views on society, socially they are not what they seem. Sons of refined blood appear to be lowly; people of adequate means satisfy the richest of tastes; worthy gentlemen are treated ill by life and reduced to impoverished, nearly inescapable circumstances. Most of Bramble’s acquaintances are eccentrics and thus “humorous” in the true sense of the word. Each has a master passion that he fervently pursues, often to the point of ludicrousness. Bramble, in his effort to comprehend them magnanimously, creates an equally humorous effect—his endearing desire to help everybody is obviously his own master passion—and the conflict between his head and his heart is never resolved. In The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, humor eventually leads to satire. Smollett is at least partially successful here, though he tends to direct his satire against personal enemies with allusions too obscure to be easily appreciated, One device by which he executes satire more accessibly is by setting up opposites—town versus country, for example, or commoner versus gentleman—where one at first appears clearly preferable to the other. The reader soon sees, however, that Smollett does not present logical alternatives when opposites are in conflict. By their actions and their verbalized reactions, the characters seem to hold common views on propriety, but when the reader tries to reconstruct what these views are, the result is elusive. Although readers know that propriety depends on good favor, a good name, and money, Smollett refuses to spell out what it is these commodities then bring. The success of The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is based on Smollett’s reaffirmation of the genuine emotional response. Bramble is presented as someone with sensitivity toward his physical and social surroundings and experiences. He is tempted, for

example, to believe that Scotland as he sees it during his trip could provide that ideal way of life he has been searching for and proselytizing; he senses, however, that modernization threatens Scotland with the same laziness and complacency that are seen in England. Smollett also emphasizes how character is shaped by experiences and emotional responses. Bramble’s solitary reflections imply that the most intense and meaningful emotions are those an individual does not feel constrained to share in words. In this way, the emotions of Smollett’s characters are safe from both the reader’s pity and his ridicule.

Places Discussed Brambleton Hall Brambleton Hall. Matthew Squire’s country residence, an imaginary estate near the real town of Abergavenny, Wales. Throughout the novel, it serves as the basis of comparison for the new places the family experiences and comments on in their letters to friends at home. Smollett, himself a Scotsman, liked Wales and used Welsh characters in other novels. Choosing a Welsh protagonist like Matt provided Smollett with a not-quite-foreign outsider from a simple, rustic background to serve as witness and commentator on city life versus country life, tradition versus change, and...