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Ferdinand Count Fathom

Tobias Smollett

Ferdinand Count Fathom

Original publication
1753
Bilingual edition
June 12, 2026
Pages
1057
Difficulty
★★★
Genres
Adventure, Crime and Thriller
Translated from
English

Book summary

Ferdinand, an ambitious and unscrupulous adventurer, moves across Europe manipulating and deceiving those he meets to climb the ranks. He adopts multiple identities and strategies to achieve his goals, indifferent to consequences. His schemes eventually expose him to increasingly risky situations. The story follows his rise and setbacks in a world dominated by appearances and cunning. This novel dives into the mind of a calculating anti-hero. The author constructs a sharp critique of ambition and duplicity.

The plot

A young man who will stop at nothing to get rich. In Hungary, a woman saves the life of a count. To thank her, he raises her son, Ferdinand Fathom, alongside his own son.

The world of the book

A world where looking rich is enough. In the early 18th century, the hero, Ferdinand Fathom, grows up in the camps of armies at war. The novel then moves through Hungary, Vienna, Paris and London.

The author

Tobias Smollett. Born in Scotland, he studies medicine in Glasgow. At 18, he leaves for London with a play he has just written.

The benefits of the bilingual method with Line-by-line synced layout

Every line of the original has its translation directly beneath it, at the same height. You never lose your place: your eye drops one line and lands on exactly the sentence it just read. This is the layout that lets you open a book in a language you barely know without ever giving up, and compare the two texts almost word for word.

The excerpt shows the method using another book from the catalogue, not this one.

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