The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

Humphry Clinker, Smollett's last novel, published a few months before he died in 1771, is generally regarded as his greatest work, although it may not have been read quite so widely as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. While one may classify Hunphry Clinker as both an epistolary novel and picaresque romance, to be set beside Clarissa Harlowe and Tom Jones, it has qualities which are all its own and reminds the modern reader of later books (a little of James Joyce's Ulysses) as well as earlier. The quality on which its reputation rests was stated by Thackeray in his English Humorists: 'What man who has made his inestimable acquaintance will refuse his most cordial acknowledgements to the admirable Lieutenant Lismahago The novel of Humphry Clinker is, I do think, the most laughable story that has ever been written since the goodly art of novel writing began. Winifred Jenkins and Tabitha Bramble must keep Englishmen on the grin for ages yet to come and in their letters and the story of their loves there is a perpetual fount of sparkling laughter.'