In "The History and Adventures of an Atom," a London haberdasher
relates extraordinary tales of ancient Japan as dictated to him by
an omniscient atom that has lived within the bodies of great
figures of state. Intended "for the instruction of British
ministers," the work is a savage allegory of England during the
Seven Years' War (1756-1763), draping kings and politicians,
domestic and foreign affairs in an intricately detailed, endlessly
allusive veil of satire.
Lacing his commentary with vitriol, Tobias Smollett gives
fantastic expression in the Atom to many of the concerns voiced in
his historical and political writings. He creates from the details
of Japanese history an ingenious catalog of English places and
personalities--from the up-start ruler "Taycho," whose graspings
for power resemble William Pitt's, to a god of war called "Fatzman"
who suggests the grotesquely obese Duke of Cumberland. Smollett
also draws on the imagery of the period's scurrilous political
cartoons and injects into his satire a Rabelaisian humor that makes
this work perhaps the most scatological in English literature.
Edited and introduced by Robert Adams Day, this edition of the
Atom is the first to appear since 1926 and the first ever to
provide a carefully prepared text, a full apparatus of historical
annotations, and an accurate key to personages and places. Day
establishes the authorship and the long-disputed work, placing it
within the context of Smollett's writings and opinions, his times
and literary world.
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