Tobias Smollett: References & Edit History

Individual novels are readily obtainable, especially in Everyman’s Library and World Classics and in the “Oxford English Novels” series (1966–79). Smollett’s Letters were edited by Edward S. Noyes (1926, reprinted 1969); this edition was superseded by that of Lewis M. Knapp (1970), which also contains details of Smollett manuscripts. The most authoritative biography is Lewis M. Knapp, Tobias Smollett: Doctor of Men and Manners (1949). Robert Alter, Rogue’s Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel (1964), is a useful critical work. Robert D. Spector, Tobias George Smollett (1968), is a study of fundamental techniques in Smollett’s minor works and an analysis of the structure, themes, and fictional devices of the major works. Of more interest to the student than to the nonspecialist reader is George M. Kahrl, Tobias Smollett, Traveler-Novelist (1945), which is valuable for its information on Smollett’s sources. Lionel Kelly (ed.), Tobias Smollett: The Critical Heritage (1987), usefully collects responses of Smollett’s contemporaries.