Quotes from Tobias Smollett's books, and about them
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker on The Ever Green: “he mentioned a considerable number of pieces, which he insisted were equal in point of humour to any thing extant in any language dead or living--He, in particular, recommended a collection of detached poems, in two small volumes, intituled, The Ever-Green”
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker on Don Quixote: “Here he was interrupted by my uncle; who asked peevishly if he was Don Quixote enough, at this time of day, to throw down his gauntlet as champion for a man who had treated him with such ungrateful neglect.”
The Adventures of Roderick Random on Robinson Crusoe: “…of his way; and asked me if I had got never a piece of secret history, thrown into a series of letters, or a volume of adventures, such as those of Robinson Crusoe, and Colonel Jack, or a collection of Conundrums, wherewith to entertain the plantations.”
The Adventures of Roderick Random on Colonel Jack: “…me if I had got never a piece of secret history, thrown into a series of letters, or a volume of adventures, such as those of Robinson Crusoe, and Colonel Jack, or a collection of Conundrums, wherewith to entertain the plantations.”
The Adventures of Roderick Random on Odes: “for Horace uses the words poto and bibo indifferently for the same purpose, as in the twentieth Ode of his first Book.”
The Adventures of Roderick Random on Don Quixote: “A third sort swore, that no other cause could be assigned for this undertaking than that which induced Don Quixote to attack the windmill.”
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle on Elements: “So inordinate was his desire of making speedy advances in the paths of learning, that within the compass of three months, he diligently perused the writings of Locke and Malebranche, and made himself master of the first six and of the eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid's Elements.”
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle on Commentaries on the Gallic War: “The North Briton, who was as great a pedant as the physician, having studied fortification, and made himself master of Caesar's Commentaries and Polybius, with the observations of Folard, affirmed, that all the methods of besieging practised by the ancients would be utterly ineffectual against such a plan a…”