Dr. Smollet: The history and adventures of the renowned DON QUIXOTE. Volume 5, Cookes Edition, London
*Tobias [George] Smollet (1721-1771), schottischer Schriftsteller. Er beteiligte sich nach einem Mißerfolg als Dramatiker als Wundarzt an Schiffsreisen, hatte nach 1743 eine schlechtgehende Arztpraxis und wandte sich dann ganz der Literatur zu. Durch journalistische Kontroversen verbittert, verließ er 1769 die britische Insel für immer. Seine Schelmenromane zeichnen sich durch grobkomische, karikaturistische, groteske Elemente aus, seine Vorliebe galt exzentrischen Originalen, wie er sie in seinen Hauptwerken, dem hier vorliegenden (1748, deutsch 1755) und "Die Abenteuer des Peregrine Pickle" (1751, deutsch 1785) darstellte, sein bedeutendster Roman ist "Humphrey Clinker's Reisen" (1771, deutsch 1848). Er übersetzte auch Lesage und Cervantes*Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 - 17 September 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1753)Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton, in present-day West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He was the son of a judge and land-owner, and was educated at the University of Glasgow, qualifying as a surgeon. His career in medicine came second to his literary ambitions, and in 1739 he went to London to seek his fortune as a dramatist. Although unsuccessful, he obtained a commission as a naval surgeon on the HMS Chichester and travelled to Jamaica, where he settled down for several years. On his return, he set up practice in Downing Street and married a wealthy Jamaican heiress, Anne Lascelles, in 1747.His first published work was a poem about the Battle of Culloden entitled "The Tears of Scotland", but it was The Adventures of Roderick Random which made his name. It was modelled on Le Sage's Gil Blas, and was published in 1748. Smollett followed it up by finally getting his tragedy, The Regicide, published, though it was never performed. In 1750, Smollett took his MD degree in Aberdeen, and also travelled to France, where he obtained material for his second novel, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, another big success. Having lived for a short time in Bath, he returned to London and published The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom in 1753. He was now recognised as a leading literary figure, and associated with the likes of David Garrick, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson, whom he famously nicknamed "that Great Cham of literature".[1] In 1755 he published a translation of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, which he revised in 1761. In 1756, he became editor of The Critical Review.He also visited Scotland, and this visit helped inspire his last novel, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), published in the year of his death. He had for some time been ailing from an intestinal disorder, and had sought a cure at Bath and eventually retired to Italy, where he is buried at Leghorn/Livorno.
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