Reading Notes: The Adventures of Roderick Random

Tobias Smollett (1748)

A picaresque novel of 69 chapters following Roderick Random from birth through his ultimate fortune. Smollett draws on his own naval experience to expose the brutality and corruption of eighteenth-century Britain.

Part One: Birth and Early Hardship

Chapter I: Parentage and Prophetic Dream

Roderick is born in northern Scotland to parents whose secret marriage incurs his grandfather’s wrath. The grandfather, a wealthy judge noted for severity toward beggars, disowns Roderick’s father. Before birth, Roderick’s mother dreams of giving birth to a tennis ball that the devil strikes away, only for it to return and blossom into a tree. A Highland seer interprets this favorably: Roderick will become a great traveler, face many dangers, but return home in happiness and reputation.

The mother, after being cruelly evicted from the grandfather’s house, dies in childbirth. The father disappears, presumed dead by suicide.

Chapter II: Childhood Persecution

Roderick’s cousins develop implacable hatred toward him. His grandfather blocks access to the boy, who is sent to a village school but neglected—clad in rags, learning Latin despite the schoolmaster’s active attempts to prevent his progress. The master binds Roderick’s hand in a torture device to prevent letter-writing.

By age twelve, Roderick organizes a schoolboy faction of thirty against his persecutor. He hounds the family heir, who sets beagles upon him. Roderick retaliates by striking out four of the tutor’s front teeth with a pebble.

Chapters III–V: Uncle Tom Bowling and the Path to Education

Lieutenant Tom Bowling, Roderick’s maternal uncle, arrives—a weathered seaman who slaughters the family’s dogs Jowler and Caesar in defense of his nephew. At the grandfather’s deathbed, Uncle Tom demands provision for the boy. The grandfather offers only apprenticeship to a tradesman; Uncle Tom refuses indignantly and departs, promising the boy shall not want while he has a shilling.

The grandfather dies, leaving everything to the young squire. The female cousins receive nothing. Uncle Tom, learning of the schoolmaster’s continued abuse, helps Roderick plan revenge. The three conspirators—Roderick, Jeremy Gawky, and Hugh Strap—ambush and birch the tyrant. Uncle Tom administers the punishment with a cat-and-nine-tails.

Roderick is settled with an apothecary near a university town, where his uncle funds his education before departing on naval service.

Part Two: University and London

Chapter VI: Rise and Betrayal

Over three years, Roderick excels in Greek, mathematics, and philosophy. His poetic talents gain favor with townspeople. His wealthy female cousins, who once despised him, now seek his acquaintance. Roderick spurns them, and they conspire revenge—hiring someone to write verses against him, then irritating a young gentleman into plotting to have Roderick ducked in the river. Roderick thwarts the ambush.

However, a confidant betrays him to the cousins, publishing exaggerated accounts of his minor romantic affairs. His reputation crumbles. Then news arrives: Uncle Tom killed Captain Oakum in self-defense at Cape Tiberoon and fled to the French. The apothecary evicts Roderick. A pretended friend pretends sympathy, then casts him out. Squire Gawky, another former schoolmate, shows indifference to Roderick’s distress.

Roderick challenges Gawky to a duel; Gawky flees. Roderick publishes the story but must sell his gold-laced hat to pay expenses.

Chapter VII: Service to Mr. Crab

Penniless, Roderick meets Mr. Launcelot Crab, a corpulent surgeon with a swollen, carbuncled nose and mortal hatred for his rival Potion. Crab exploits Roderick’s pharmaceutical knowledge while treating him cruelly. Roderick discovers Crab’s peculiar temperament: submission enrages him, but bold resistance earns grudging respect.

After two years without wages, Roderick’s situation ends when a housemaid claims him the father of her child. Roderick shifts suspicion onto Crab, who, fearing scandal, provides money for Roderick to depart. Crab gives him a letter to a Member of Parliament and a loan for London, where Roderick hopes to become surgeon’s mate aboard a king’s ship.

Chapters VIII–XI: Journey to London

Roderick encounters Hugh Strap at Newcastle—the loyal schoolfellow who had helped birch the schoolmaster. Strap offers to accompany him overland. At a hedge alehouse, they share supper with a pedlar, only to discover at midnight that the highwayman Rifle occupies the adjacent room. Rifle has just missed robbing four hundred pounds intended to recruit soldiers.

The next day, Rifle overtakes them and shoots Strap (who is merely stunned by fear). Pursuing horsemen save Roderick. At an inn, Roderick observes a curate named Shuffle systematically cheating farmers at cards, then entertaining them with fiddle-playing.

Rifle is captured but escapes through a garret window. Roderick and Strap reach a market town, share lodging with a recruiting sergeant who bellows martial threats in his sleep, and take shelter with a classical schoolmaster who quotes Horace and charges them eight shillings and sevenpence for hospitality.

They join a waggon with Captain Weazel (a spider-thin braggart), his wife, Miss Jenny (a prostitute), and an old usurer. A midnight confusion involves chamberpots, false accusations of rape, and general chaos. Weazel’s cowardice is repeatedly exposed; Miss Jenny robs the usurer of five guineas by threatening false charges.

Part Three: London and Deception

Chapter XIII: Arrival in London

Strange noises at an inn terrify Strap—a tame raven with bells appears in their room, followed by an old man searching for his pet named Ralpho. Joey the driver explains the apparitions away.

In London, Roderick and Strap are splashed by a coachman’s prank and mocked at an alehouse. Roderick fights a wit and wins approval. A footman gives false directions, leading them to the riverside. A Scottish tobacconist sets them right.

Their cheap lodging involves “diving”—descending into cook’s shops to eat among hackney coachmen and servants. Strap tumbles into one establishment, scalding a drummer, but they dine deliciously for twopence halfpenny.

Chapters XIV–XV: Cringer’s Disappointment

Strap’s schoolmaster friend mocks Roderick’s shabby appearance and carroty hair, insisting he buy a wig before calling on Mr. Cringer. At Cringer’s door, Strap’s overzealous knocking results in a chamber pot deluge from above; he responds by smashing the door with a stone.

A stranger picks up Roderick’s dropped half-crown and invites them for drinks. He praises Scots and proposes cards. Roderick wins at whist, then loses everything at piquet to two strangers who depart. Roderick is penniless again.

Strap gives Roderick his life savings—two half-guineas and half a crown. The landlord reveals these are “money-droppers” who target strangers. Roderick bribes Cringer’s footman a shilling and gains admittance, but Cringer dismisses his request for a surgeon’s warrant with cold indifference.

Strap finds work with a periwig-maker. Cringer palms Roderick off onto Mr. Staytape. A fellow Scottish surgeon explains the process: write to the Navy Board, pass examination at Surgeons’ Hall, bribe the secretary. The cost is prohibitive, and Roderick lends his remaining money to a stranger who promises repayment.

Part Four: Apothecary Service and Intrigue

Chapters XVI–XVIII: Navy Qualification and Lavement

Roderick misses an appointment with a fellow named Bean Jackson, who missed their meeting due to a secret engagement to a wealthy woman. At Surgeons’ Hall, Roderick passes his examination despite Mr. Snarler’s hostility to Scots. He is nearly penniless afterward.

Jackson, disguised with painted wrinkles and a beard, is detected as an imposter and nearly sent to Bridewell. They bribe the beadle. A tavern visit leads to the night-house where Jackson’s purse is stolen. All are arrested, then released by a justice who terrifies them as a first-time deterrent.

Roderick returns to find Strap frantic with worry. Strap fought a blacksmith who mocked him, losing his wig and shirt to thieves. The schoolmaster procures Roderick a position with Mr. Lavement, a French apothecary. Roderick receives clothes on credit.

Chapters XIX–XXI: The Lavement Household

Mr. Lavement is a miserly French refugee married to a sharp English wife. Their daughter, soon to inherit a fortune, has seen two marriage proposals ruined by her father’s stinginess. She initially disdains Roderick, but when he dresses well on a Sunday, she doesn’t recognize him—then curtsies to him. Mortified when she discovers her mistake, she becomes hostile.

Captain O’Donnell, a lodger, has an affair with Mrs. Lavement, causing her husband’s jealousy. Roderick discovers the captain stabbed him—one wound’s broken point matches the fragment in his body. Roderick orchestrates revenge: disguised, he invites O’Donnell to a secluded spot where he is stripped and scourged with nettles.

O’Donnell flees, leaving a trunk full of stones. Strap departs to serve a gentleman abroad. Roderick courts a beautiful heiress, only to discover she has a base design against him.

Squire Gawky arrives at Lavement’s as a lieutenant. Roderick rescues him from watchmen and is blinded in one eye. Gawky denies his cowardice. Within a fortnight, Gawky elopes with Miss Lavement. Then Gawky and his wife conspire to frame Roderick for stealing medicines. The apothecary dismisses him; acquaintances refuse to believe him.

Roderick takes a cheap garret near St. Giles’s. There he finds Miss Williams, the former lady, lying near death from a quack’s abandonment. He tends her, forgives her past machinations, and they share lodgings.

Part Five: The Sea

Chapters XXIV–XXVI: HMS Thunder

Press-ganged on Tower Hill, Roderick fights fiercely but is overpowered and wounded. On the pressing tender, he is confined in the hold. A sentinel named Jack Rattlin befriends him and tells of the feud between Captain Oakum and Lieutenant Bowling, whose duel left Bowling exiled.

Roderick boards HMS Thunder and is mocked by sailors. A midshipman, Crampley, beats him and has him imprisoned. Jack Rattlin alerts the surgeon; Thompson testifies. Roderick is exonerated; Crampley is confined.

Thompson becomes Roderick’s friend. First mate Morgan, a Welshman, disputes having Roderick in the mess but relents when he hears of Roderick’s good family, claiming descent from Caractacus. Morgan gives Roderick two ruffled shirts.

The sick berth houses fifty patients crowded together, breathing fetid air, devoured by vermin. Roderick assists with clysters. A perfume box accident diffuses stench; a sick man tweaks Roderick’s nose in retaliation.

Chapters XXVII–XXVIII: Promotion and Battle

Roderick becomes surgeon’s mate after Doctor Atkins departs. He boxes Crampley and defeats him. Captain Oakum arrives with the brutal Dr. Mackshane. Oakum refuses to acknowledge the sick list, forcing delirious patients to appear on deck. Many die.

A madman is released from bonds against Morgan’s advice; he attacks both captain and surgeon. Thompson, despairing of Mackshane’s malice, goes overboard and is presumed drowned.

A tempest strikes the fleet. Jack Rattlin suffers a broken leg. Mackshane orders amputation, but Morgan and Roderick successfully treat the fracture, saving the leg.

Chapters XXIX–XXX: Persecution and Mock Trial

Roderick is imprisoned on the poop as a spy, exposed to sun and damps for twelve days. Morgan joins him. Thompson is tampered with to turn evidence. When battle approaches, Mackshane releases Morgan but keeps Roderick fettered. Roderick sees a marine’s head shot off and a drummer die of abdominal wounds.

A Greek witness quarrel exposes Mackshane’s subornation of false testimony. Roderick and Morgan are released. Mackshane feigns well-wishes.

Chapters XXXI–XXXIII: Carthagena Campaign

The fleet sails to Jamaica, then joins the West India Squadron at Hispaniola. French ships have already fled, alerting the Spanish. The fleet anchors windward of Carthagena for ten days, allowing Spanish preparation.

Troops land and erect batteries. Bocca Chica fort falls after four hours of cannonading; sailors capture Fort St. Joseph. But an assault on St. Lazar castle fails catastrophically—eight thousand men reduce to fifteen hundred fit for service.

Rations are putrid: “Irish horse” beef, New England pork infested with insects, butter tasting of train oil. Water is restricted to one quart daily despite adequate supplies.

Part Six: Recovery and Servitude

Chapters XXXIV–XXXVI: Recovery and Shipwreck

Roderick contracts the bilious fever that kills three-fourths of its victims. He cannot survive in the cockpit’s heat. Crampley reports his disobedience, but a sergeant offers his berth. Roderick recovers through sweat and determination, fooling Morgan with a counterfeit death.

Captain Oakum exchanges with Captain Whiffle, a foppish dandy who wears perfume and a mask. Morgan’s application for the surgeon vacancy fails—Whiffle calls him a monster and a stinkard.

Roderick volunteers to stay in the West Indies when ordered to release one mate. He receives a warrant on the Lizard sloop. Crampley, now a lieutenant, begins persecuting him. Roderick is assigned to a shore hospital at Port Morant.

At the hospital, Roderick reunites with Thompson, whom he mourned as drowned. Thompson had swum to a Rhode Island schooner and become overseer on a Jamaica plantation. Thompson loads Roderick with gifts. The surgeon Tomlins defends Roderick against Crampley’s slanders.

Chapters XXXVII–XXXIX: Footman Service

Shipwreck off the coast strands Roderick. He fights Crampley, but the crew attacks and robs him. He is stripped to shirt and breeches. In desperation, he is rescued by a widow suspected of witchcraft who tells her own story of disownment by wealthy parents for marrying a poor lieutenant.

The widow recommends Roderick as footman to an eccentric virtuoso who neglects her appearance for study. He falls in love at first sight with Narcissa, the lady’s niece. He tells her a fabricated story of press-ganging and shipwreck, winning her sympathy.

Chapters XL–XLI: Escape and Flight

Roderick saves Narcissa from Sir Timothy Thicket’s assault, then confesses his love and flees anticipated revenge. Smugglers capture him and transport him to Boulogne. There he finds Uncle Bowling, destitute after being shipwrecked. Roderick gives him five guineas.

Bowling recounts his misadventures: enlisted as a common sailor on a French ship, promoted to quartermaster, fled for fighting his countrymen, shipwrecked on the French coast. He will petition the Admiralty for reinstatement.

Roderick remains in France. A Scottish priest befriends him but quarrels with Uncle Bowling over religion. Roderick departs for Paris with a Capuchin named Balthazar, who proves lecherous and hypocritical.

Part Seven: Military Service and Return

Chapters XLII–XLIV: Regiment of Picardy

Near Amiens, the Capuchin robs Roderick of all his money. In desperation, Roderick enlists in the Regiment of Picardy. The march to Germany is brutal; a duel with an old Gascon leaves Roderick disarmed and wounded.

Roderick learns fencing from an Irish drummer. The regiment joins Marshal Noailles before the Battle of Dettingen. The French flee after attacking the Allies with disastrous results. Roderick defeats the old Gascon in rematch.

In winter quarters at Rheims, Roderick is destitute. But he encounters Strap, who has inherited three hundred pounds from his dead master. Strap clothes Roderick, procures his discharge, and they journey to Paris, then to England.

Chapters XLV–XLVI: London Society

In London, Roderick finds Uncle Bowling gone to sea. He dresses finely, frequents coffee houses, and meets Medlar, a patriotic Englishman, and Dr. Wagtail, a pedantic physician. Roderick wins fifty pistoles at hazard.

At the Bedford Coffee House, he meets Bragwell, Banter, Chatter, Slyboot, and Ranter. They play cruel pranks on Wagtail. Banter mocks Roderick about his duel with Sir Timothy, but lends him five guineas.

Chapters XLVII–L: Courtship Schemes

Roderick pursues Melinda, a wealthy coquette, losing eighteen guineas at cards. He is challenged by Irish suitor Rourk Oregan; their pistols misfire, and they part amicably. Roderick proposes to Melinda but is rejected for lack of settled fortune.

A plan to revenge on Melinda through impersonating a French marquis succeeds, but Roderick loses credit with the ladies. He receives letters from an “incognita”—only to discover the correspondent is a seventy-year-old governess, Miss Withers, who smells of garlic. He flees.

Chapters LI–LII: Patronage and Imprisonment

Roderick cultivates Lords Straddle and Swillpot, who introduce him to Earl Strutwell. Strutwell promises a secretary position and accepts Roderick’s gold watch. Banter reveals Strutwell is notorious for stripping visitors of cash and valuables. Roderick loses both watch and diamond.

Roderick wins 150 guineas at the gaming table. Mrs. Gawky (Miss Lavement) arrives penitent, confessing the conspiracy. Roderick has her swear an oath before a magistrate; she is reconciled with her father, who gives her an annuity.

Part Eight: Narcissa

Chapters LIII–LVI: The Bath Assembly

Banter proposes marrying his kinswoman’s daughter, a sickly heiress with twenty thousand pounds. Roderick accepts, bond for five hundred pounds payable after marriage. En route to Bath, he meets Miss Snapper, witty and sharp-tongued.

Robbers approach; Roderick captures one. At Bath, Miss Snapper defeats Beau Nash’s insult with a clever retort. At an assembly, Roderick sees Narcissa. He is transported with love but must dance with Miss Snapper. Miss Williams, meeting him afterward, reveals Narcissa has dwelt upon his story with admiration.

Roderick is introduced to Narcissa’s brother, Freeman, and the squire. He wins the squire’s favor but must defeat him in drinking. He engineers a stratagem with a quart cup to avoid intoxication.

Chapters LVII–LIX: Declaration and Duel

Letters pass between Roderick and Narcissa through Miss Williams. At a ball, a nobleman pays court to Narcissa; Roderick is racked with jealousy. He confronts the squire in the Long Room, tearing up an insulting note.

Lord Quiverwit mocks him. Roderick duels Quiverwit, receiving a wound in the neck but ultimately defeating him and striking out three teeth. His wound proves slight.

Chapters LX–LXI: Separation and Imprisonment

Lord Quiverwit reveals to the squire that Roderick courts Narcissa. The squire carries Narcissa away. Roderick gambles recklessly, winning then losing everything. He travels to London, pawning his sword.

He is arrested for the tailor’s debt and imprisoned in the Marshalsea. There he meets Jackson and the poet Melopoyn, whose tragedy has been sabotaged by theatrical managers. Strap becomes a journeyman barber to support them.

Chapters LXII–LXIV: Imprisonment and Deliverance

Melopoyn tells his story: raised by a curate father, his tragedy was destroyed by a cook who used the manuscript to baste fowls. He rewrote it from memory. Years of delays, betrayals, and disappointment follow. He turns to Grub Street ballad-writing, then to ghost stories. Finally, he is arrested for debt.

Uncle Bowling arrives from Guinea, having captured a prize worth three thousand pounds. He pays Roderick’s debts and offers him the position of ship’s surgeon. Roderick accepts.

Part Nine: The Voyage

Chapter LXV: Farewell and Slave Trade

Roderick secretly rides to Sussex to see Narcissa one last time. Mrs. Sagely helps him enter the squire’s garden. He hides until evening, leaving his portrait. Narcissa discovers it, kisses it, and Roderick reveals himself. They exchange vows of eternal constancy before parting.

The ship reveals its true destination: Guinea, to trade for slaves to sell in Paraguay. Roderick studies Spanish. An English man-of-war, disguised as French, chases them, then hails as a friend.

They purchase four hundred Negroes on the Guinea coast. An epidemic kills many slaves and sailors, including one of Roderick’s mates. Strap nearly dies.

Chapter LXVI: Discovery of a Father

At Buenos Ayres, Don Antonio introduces Roderick to Don Rodrigo, an English gentleman who has lived there many years. Don Rodrigo gives Roderick an amethyst ring and sighs, saying he once had a son who would be nearly Roderick’s age. When Roderick reveals his name and mother’s name, Don Rodrigo embraces him, crying, “My son! My son!”

Roderick falls ill with fever but recovers. Don Rodrigo, his father, has lived in exile since his father disowned him for marrying Roderick’s mother. He has wealth remitted to Holland and fifteen thousand pounds in silver. He approves of Roderick’s love for Narcissa.

Chapters LXVII–LXVIII: Resolution

They sail to Jamaica, visiting Thompson, whose wife has inherited a fortune. Captain Oakum is dead; Dr. Mackshane is imprisoned. Roderick sends Mackshane ten pistoles.

In England, Roderick rides to Mrs. Sagely, who tells him Narcissa lives in London with Miss Williams. He reunites with her in ecstacy. Don Rodrigo gives Narcissa five hundred pounds. The squire refuses consent to their marriage; they wed anyway, with Uncle Bowling giving Narcissa away.

At a play, the squire and Melinda see Narcissa outshining them. Acquaintances who mocked Roderick now court their favor.

Chapter LXIX: Return to Scotland

The party journeys to Scotland, visiting Roderick’s old school. He repurchases his grandfather’s estate, finding it sold after the foxhunter ruined it. The tenants receive them with acclamations.

Strap marries Miss Williams with Don Rodrigo’s blessing and five hundred pounds. Roderick learns his proctor has recovered Narcissa’s fortune—the restriction on her inheritance expires at nineteen.

Key Themes and Observations

Satire of British Society: Smollett exposes corruption at every level—from the brutal schoolmaster to the grasping Navy Office secretary, from theatrical managers to aristocratic patrons who strip dependants of cash and virtue.

The Picaresque Pattern: Roderick moves through employers, locations, and schemes, never settling, always subjected to new trials. His fortunes rise and fall with dizzying speed.

Friendship and Loyalty: Hugh Strap remains faithful through every reversal, ultimately inheriting fortune and marrying well. Jack Rattlin, Thompson, and Morgan prove trustworthy companions against numerous betrayers.

Love and Class: Roderick’s pursuit of Narcissa across class boundaries, his concealment of his origins, and her steadfastness despite scandal form the novel’s emotional core.

The Sea: Drawing on his own naval service, Smollett presents the horrors of press-ganging, brutal captains, pestilential ships, and failed military campaigns with documentary precision.

The novel ends with Roderick restored to his ancestral estate, married to his beloved, and surrounded by faithful friends—a picaresque inversion of the orphan’s苦难的起点.