to its author's death in 1771. At its heart is Matthew Bramble, a gout-ridden misanthrope who travels Britain with his nephew, niece, spinster sister, and manservant, the trusty Humphry Clinker. In a narrative peopled with pimps, drunkards, and con men, Bramble's pessimistic views on the world's degeneracy- and his eagerness to express them-betray the author's belief that his countrymen were suffering from an acute lack of sense and sobriety. Boisterous and keenly observant, Humphry Clinker is a delicious send-up of eighteenth-century society.

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