Tobias Smollett

Tobias George Smollett (baptised 1721, died 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon, born at Dalquhurn in what is now West Dunbartonshire. He trained in medicine at Glasgow and served as a naval surgeon, with experiences in Jamaica and in the campaign to capture Cartagena that later fed into his fiction. He was best known for picaresque novels, The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later British novelists including Charles Dickens. Roderick Random was modelled on Le Sage's Gil Blas. He also edited The Critical Review, translated Cervantes' Don Quixote, wrote A Complete History of England and the travel book Travels Through France and Italy, and spent his last years in Italy, where he is buried at Livorno.