Smollett

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 4

Smollett

Ute Tradition of Smollett. By Robert Giddings. Methuen, 183 pp. with notes and bibliography. Many books are like doughnuts, there is some distance to work through for the little bit ef jam in the middle; in extreme cases there is no jam, just a hole. This book has jam, but somehow it is all on the far side. Mr Giddings has set out to examine and define the picaresque novel, sstabiish »llett as the last writer of true picaresque, and demonstrate in what respects later novelists deviate/ from the standard; Whether, such rigid classification is of value in the literary field may be questioned, for it seems more appropriate to zoology. However, students of English literature should certainly b sfui to Mr Giddings for his sympathetic analysis of Smollett’s aims and method, and his study of Smollett's position in relation to authors as diverse as Miss Austin and Charles Dickens.

The theme would have been easier to foil r, for those not acquainted with all Smollett's novels, if Hie arrangement of chapters had been iifferent. The reviewer would suggest that readers go from Chapter one to Chapter four directly and take the intervening pages later, since 18th centu: criticism can be more profitably studied after examination of the material itself. The unbalanced presentation detracts considerably from the pleasure of the book.