The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

What It's About

Matthew Bramble, a prickly and ailing Welsh squire, sets out on a long tour of Britain in search of better health. With him travel his domineering sister Tabitha, his niece Lydia, his nephew Jery Melford, and the maid Win Jenkins. The journey takes them through Bath, London, Scotland and the north of England, and picks up a ragged postilion named Humphry Clinker along the way. The story is told entirely through letters written by different members of the party, so the same people, places and events are seen again and again from conflicting viewpoints. Romantic entanglements, mistaken identities and a series of comic mishaps carry the plot forward.

Key Concepts

The letter form lets Smollett show how perception depends on temperament: Bramble's gloom, Jery's youthful sarcasm, Lydia's romantic sensibility and Win's wild misspellings all give different accounts of the same scenes. Beneath the comedy is sharp social satire on the fashionable spa culture of Bath, the crowding and pollution of London, quack medicine, and the pretensions of the newly rich. Health and the body are a constant preoccupation. The novel also gives a warm, detailed portrait of Scotland, written at a time of strained relations between Scots and English. Some critics find the plot loose and dependent on coincidence, but the book is widely regarded as Smollett's masterpiece and one of the great comic novels of the eighteenth century.

About the Author

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) was a Scottish novelist, satirist and translator. He trained as a surgeon and served as a naval surgeon's mate before settling in London, where he made his living as a writer, editor and journalist. He spent his final years in Italy, where he died.