The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, a novel by Tobias Smollett, was published in 1760 in the monthly paper The British Magazine. Its first number, published in January, 1760, contained the first instalment of Smollett's fourth novel.Sir Launcelot is an eighteenth century gentleman who rides about the country in armour, attended by his comic squire, Timothy Crabshaw, redressing grievances. These characters are obviously inspired by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and Smollett's novel has been compared unfavorably with Cervantes'.

This new edition brings to life Tobias Smollett's fourth novel, The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. No annotated edition of the work existed before the second half of the twentieth century, and this comprehensive edition by Robert Folkenflik and Barbara Laning Fitzpatrick features more accurate text as well as scrupulous textual and critical information. Also included in the detailed introduction is a unique examination of Sir Launcelot Greaves, the first illustrated serial novel, in relation to the engravings by Anthony Walker. Sir Launcelot Greaves was a groundbreaking novel for Smollett. Published in British Magazine beginning in January 1760, it was the first major work by an English novelist to have been written specifically for serial publication. The novel, Smollett's shortest, differs stylistically from his previous works. The most attractive of his heroes, Sir Launcelot is virtuous and strange, and he is surrounded by a Smollettian menagerie whose various jargons are part of this novel's linguistic virtuosity and satire. Sir Launcelot's character is an English naturalization of Quixote. Although Sir Launcelot, unlike Quixote, is not the object of the author's satire, an idealistic madness is central to both characters. In Smollett's work the theme of madness is integral to the relationship between self and society as the work ponders both the constitution of madness and the alternatives to revenge. Sir Launcelot Greaves, though not Smollett's most heralded work, has not received the recognition it deserves. Folkenflik and Fitzpatrick present a definitive edition that will be appreciated by scholars and lovers of eighteenth-century literature.

This new edition brings to life Tobias Smollett's fourth novel, The Life and Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves. No annotated edition of the work existed before the second half of the twentieth century, and this comprehensive edition by Robert Folkenflik and Barbara Laning Fitzpatrick features more accurate text as well as scrupulous textual and critical information. Also included in the detailed introduction is a unique examination of Sir Launcelot Greaves, the first illustrated serial novel, in relation to the engravings by Anthony Walker.

The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greavesby Tobias SmollettThe Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, a novel by Tobias Smollett, was published in 1760 in the monthly paper The British Magazine. Its first number, published in January, 1760, contained the first instalment of Smollett's fourth novel.Sir Launcelot is an eighteenth century gentleman who rides about the country in armour, attended by his comic squire, Timothy Crabshaw, redressing grievances. These characters are obviously inspired by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and Smollett's novel has been compared unfavorably with Cervantes'.

This text (1762) is a neglected picaresque piece by one of the great 18th-century English novelists. Its most intriguing aspect is its subject matter - madness - and its ironic exploration of enlightenment notions of sanity. Much of the action takes place in and around a lunatic asylum.