‘Peregrine Pickle’ was Smollett’s follow-up to ‘Roderick Random’, and it is, if anything, even more packed to the rafters with roguery and rumbustuousness. To tell the truth, there is so much that it all becomes a bit tiring after a while, particularly since Peregrine is a less engaging hero than Ro

Finally finished this: all 781 pages of it (plus notes). It's a funny, picaresque 18th century novel, grittier and cruder than Henry Fielding, but also a novel that could be a couple hundred pages shorter without any serious loss. By mid-novel the misadventures become almost random, as if Smollett i

Peregrine Pickle is the rare kind of man who his own mother hates! That she's a nut, doesn't help him in life you can imagine. Mr. Pickle is an incessant, rather notorious practical joker to his friends and relatives which annoys the people, those few that still speak to him. Commodore Hawser Trunni

As much as I found the practical jokes and adventures entertaining, Smollet failed pull me in. His characters seemed two-dimensional and sometimes very flat. The protagonist only finds trouble for himself once and even then he is swept away in moments and in a better state. I understand that it is a