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Roderick Random

Tobias Smollett

Roderick Random

Paper book: €80.99

Digital: €16.99

Original publication
1748
Bilingual edition
12 June 2026
Pages
1496
Difficulty
Hard
Genres
Adventure, Travel Writing
Moods
Escape it all, Have a laugh
Translated from
English

Book summary

Rejected by his family and penniless, young Roderick Random leaves his native Scotland to seek his fortune in London, with his faithful friend Strap, a barber. Robbed, deceived and press-ganged into the navy, he becomes a surgeon's mate on a warship and lives through the Battle of Cartagena.

Smollett had himself served as a naval surgeon, and his scenes on board are strikingly true to life. Full of hard knocks and satire, this adventure novel delighted Charles Dickens as a child.

With the translation always in front of you, its humorous adventures are a pleasure to read in the language you are learning.

The plot

A young Scot carried off to sea by force. In Scotland, Roderick Random grows up poor, because his rich grandfather refuses to help him. A seafaring uncle pays for his education.

The world of the book

From Scotland to Jamaica. Around 1740, Britain is at war with Spain. The hero travels from Scotland to London, then sails all the way to Jamaica, in the Caribbean.

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