The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves

The Hero Returns (Paperback) #11

by Tobias Smollett, Peter Wagner

This new edition brings to life Tobias Smollett's fourth novel, The Life and Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves. No annotated edition of the work existed before the second half of the twentieth century, and this comprehensive edition by Robert Folkenflik and Barbara Laning Fitzpatrick features more accurate text as well as scrupulous textual and critical information. Also included in the detailed introduction is a unique examination of Sir Launcelot Greaves, the first illustrated serial novel, in relation to the engravings by Anthony Walker.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, 18th Century, Adventure, British Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1762

About the author

Tobias George Smollett was born in Dalquhurn, now part of Renton, Scotland, to a prosperous family and educated at the University of Glasgow, where he studied to be a physician. Later he joined the British Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate. He was present at the disastrous battle against the Spanish at Cartagena in 1741.

He married a British woman named Anne " Nancy" Lascelles, in Jamaica, 1747,and settled in England. In London, as a writer, he became successful. The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), a picaresque novel - like most of his books - made him a well known author. It was followed by The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle in 1751. But the failure of The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753) caused financial difficulties for him. Publishing The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1762) didn't help.

Writing poems, plays, travel and history books, essays, satires, doing translations and even becoming a literary critic and magazine editor, Dr. Smollett struggled all his short life against poverty, he traveled to Italy, to regain his health, but died of tuberculosis near Livorno, in 1771. Ironically finishing his masterpiece, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, a few months before his death.

Charles Dickens was a great admirer of Tobias Smollett, even visiting his grave site.

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this in appearance is just another satire, or homage to the great Don Quixote by Mr. Tobias Smollett a British writer and one of the first novelist in the English language from 1761. An admirer both in the book and Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes since he translated the epic in 1755 into English which influenced numerous others. Cranky Dr. Smollett more successful as a writer than a medical man quite a curmudgeon, his well known tendencies, his acerbic nature ensured few patients, yet respected by the likes of Dickens and Orwell. Sir Launcelot Greaves (Don Quixote) maybe a tiny bit of strange since he insists on wearing armor his ancestor used almost two centuries before. Obsolete is the nice word since muskets and especially cannons clinched this deadly fact, however the man in shining metal on a tall horse looks fierce, romantic on the road until he falls. People are curious seeing him and his not too faithful "squire" Timothy Crabshaw (Sancho Panza). The clumsy sidekick unhappily plummets into a river and would undoubtedly have drown if not for his brave master, the guy who employs the ludicrous servant. Immediately they head for a nearby inn the Black Lion, to dry out and wet their whistle after a sudden rain pours down, joining a drenched gang of four on the identical route with the same idea, nevertheless are harmless honest people, to be frank mostly that. Captain Crowe a former seaman, his bright nephew an attorney, Thomas Clarke, Dr. Fillet he says and the mysterious Ferret sitting by himself tongue tied, aloof, these characters are the principle ones. Up till an apparition it must be said, a gentleman in armor appears carrying his unconscious flunky, causes people to stir become very frightened, not possible in the 1700s , they couldn't be real their wrong. Poor insane creature and this is our hero Sir Launcelot Greaves, a nobleman too, not quite normal but who is? Thus the many adventures unfold as the lovesick knight errant searches for his beloved Aurelia (Dulcinea ) through the countryside, meeting some unfriendly citizens not too glad to encounter a weird person. A nice journey in a familiar land which though improbable is rather fun to escape to, our imagination soars and the amusement follows. The impoverished Scottish writer struggled all his life to survive and provide for family and Smollett's masterpiece ironically was published a few months before his exit, Humphry Clinker.

[Neale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Smollett's earlier novels all follow the traditional model of Eighteenth Century fiction: beginning with a lengthy account of the family origins and birth of the hero, and then proceeding chronologically through his upbringing, life and adventures.

'Sir Launcelot Greaves' is different. It begins, in media res, on a rainy night in a coaching inn: it could easily be the opening of a Dickens novel. It does not read like an Eighteenth Century novel at all. The hero simply appears at the door, dripping wet, carrying a half-drowned body. It is Sir Launcelot Greaves, a blatant 'copy' of Don Quixote, right down to the anachronistic armour. Smollett is of course aware of what he is doing, and allows the characters to comment, metafictionally, on the pitfalls of an attempt to update Cervantes to an English setting.

After such a promising opening, it is a shame that Smollett is unable to overcome the problems that he has himself identified. No-one was better suited than him to update Cervantes, as the translator of both 'Don Quixote' and 'Gil Blas'. But 'Sir Launcelot Greaves', though full of good things, is simply too obvious in its approach. Still, compared to Smollett’s earlier novels it strikes a pleasingly relaxed, un-cynical note, which looks forward to his last work, ‘Humphrey Clinker’.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I do purpose," said the youth, eyeing him with a look of ineffable contempt, "to act as a coadjutator to the law, and even to remedy evils which the law cannot reach; to detect fraud and treason, abase insolence, mortify pride, discourage slander, disgrace immodesty, and stigmatise ingratitude..."

So speaks Sir Launcelot Greaves, an 18th century Don Quixote of the West Ridings, determined to prove through his own actions that chivalry is far from dead, all for the love of his damsel in distress, accompanied by his own Sancho Panza, the sewage-mouthed squire Timothy Crabshaw.

Actually Sir Launcelot, as his lofty name implies, is actually pretty good at the knight-errantry business, so instead it's poor Crabshaw who suffers all manor of unpleasant abuses, which he counters with a string of ready oaths, e.g. "Thatch your house with t—d, and you'll have more teachers than reachers."

Inspired by the young knight's example is boat-tossed brain of one Captain Crowe, whose speech consists entirely of solipsistic maritime allusions, e.g. "D—n my eyes, if you call this—start my timbers, brother—look ye, d'ye see—a lousy, lubberly, cowardly son of a—among the breakers, d'ye see—lost my steerage way—split my binnacle; bawl away—O!"

Other attractions awaiting Sir Launcelot along the way during his picaresque crusade up and down the highways and byways of England are boorish rustics (Farmer Prickle), corrupt magistrates (Justice Gobble) and his implacable enemy Anthony Darnel, the uncle and guardian of his beloved Aurelia.

An enjoyable enough comedy with some pointed political and social satire, the overall impression though is one of flimsiness, the ending suggesting that even the author may have become bored with the whole thing himself.

This is the first thing I have read by Smollett. Dickens was a fan and it's easy to see why - the whole affair is prototypically Dickensian, with its gross caricatures, happy coincidences and all around sweetness of tone.

[Steve]

Couldn't finish. The copy I had reprised pp22-35 in place of 85-99. I wasn't enjoying it enough to try to find a perfect copy.