Home
/
Fiction
/
Humphry Clinker
Humphry Clinker
Jan 29, 2026 6:43 AM

Author:Tobias Smollett,Shaun Regan,Angus Ross,Jeremy Lewis

Humphry Clinker

Matthew Bramble, a gout-ridden misanthrope, travels Britain with his nephew, niece, spinster sister and man-servant, the trusty Humphry Clinker. In poor health, Bramble sees the world as one of degeneracy and raucous overcrowding, and will not hesitate to let his companions know his feelings on the matter. Peopled with pimps, drunkards, decadents and con-men, Humphrey Clinker displays Smollett’s ferociously pessimistic view of mankind, and his belief that the luxury of eighteenth-century England existence was the enemy of sense and sobriety. Presented in the form of letters from six very different characters, and full of joyful puns and double entendres, Humphrey Clinker is now recognised as a boisterous and observant masterpiece of English satire.

Jeremy Lewis’s introduction examines why Smollett has become an unjustly neglected figure of English literature, and how the time in which he lived became a crucible for his work. This new edition contains notes, a chronology and suggested reading.

Reviews

Terry Pratchett is one of the great inventors of secondary - or imaginative or alternative - worlds. He is not derivative. He is too strong . . . He has the real energy of the primary storyteller.

—— The Times

In a better world he would be acclaimed as a great writer rather than a merely successful one . . . This is the best Pratchett I've read

—— Sunday Telegraph

Reads with all the polished fluency and sure-footed pacing that have become Pratchett's hallmarks over the years.

—— The Times On Saturday

She could describe the ordinary and make it magical

—— Guardian

Her art was expansive, non-autobiographical and insistently inventive

—— Daily Telegraph

I was drawn to the intellectual speculation and psychological depth of Murdoch’s writing, and the experience of reading her brought the realisation that, for me, thinking would always be the greater part of reading.

—— Aminatta Forna

The effect of the novels is to convey to us reality, unfolded, shaking out light and air from between its newly perceived and freed layers

—— Candia McWilliam

There are some breathtakingly eloquent passages

—— Spectator

Passionate, well-informed

—— London Review of Books

The story is exciting and memorably analyses the way in which fanaticism can wreck the most inoffensive lives

—— Mail on Sunday

I've recorded all the Jeeves books, and I can tell you this: it's like singing Mozart. The perfection of the phrasing is a physical pleasure. I doubt if any writer in the English language has more perfect music

—— Simon Callow

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

Wodehouse was quite simply the Bee's Knees. And then some

—— Joseph Connolly

I constantly find myself drooling with admiration at the sublime way Wodehouse plays with the English language

—— Simon Brett

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

P.G. Wodehouse should be prescribed to treat depression. Cheaper, more effective than valium and far, far more addictive

—— Olivia Williams

My only problem with Wodehouse is deciding which of his enchanting books to take to my desert island

—— Ruth Dudley Edwards

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

—— Evelyn Waugh
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved