Books By Tobias Smollett, Jeremy Lewis, Shaun Regan - Author

TOBIAS SMOLLETT was borin near Dunbarton in Scotland in 1721. He was educated at local schools and then at the University of Glasgow, which he left without a degree. He was apprenticed as a surgeon in the city, but in 1739 went to London. In 1740 he sailed with the fleet to the West Indies as surgeon's mate on HMS Chichester. He was present at the disastrous attack on Cartagena and cisited Jamaica. He settled in London in 1744 and practised -unsuccessfully -as a surgeon. The Adventures of Roderick Random, Smollett's first novel, appeared in 1748. Drawing on his own experiences, the book is a series of adventures depicting the travels of a Scottish hero; its expose of London life foreshadows some of the themes in Humphry Clinker. Smollett's last years were parred by sickness and disappointment. In 1760 he was fined £100 and sentenced to three months' imprisonment for a bitter attack on Admiral Knowles (who had commanded the West Indies expedition) in the Critical Review, which with two others he had founded