Warwick’s Reviews > The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle > Status Update
Warwick
is on page 170 of 992
End of volume one. Narratively bitty (like most picaresques) but linguistically very rich. Includes the unbelievable exclamation “odd's niggers!” which is etymologically unrelated to the racial slur but still gave me a hell of a fright. Surprisingly meta (the main character has read Roderick Random). Main character is also a ‘high-spirited prankster’, i.e. a bit of a dick, which doesn't help.
— Sep 01, 2020 11:19PM
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Warwick’s Previous Updates
Warwick
is on page 487 of 992
End of vol. 3. This volume dominated by the inserted 80-page Memoirs of a Woman of Quality, a disguised life of Frances, Lady Vane, who was a figure of some scandal at the time. She may even have written this herself; certainly everyone thought she had at the time. It's a fascinating example of a serial adulterer telling her own side of the story in a society stacked against women. Good counterpoint for PP…
— Sep 27, 2020 01:45AM
Warwick
is on page 335 of 992
End of vol 2. Our hero takes a grand tour of Italy, France and the Low Countries, featuring a great deal of sophisticated 18th century humour, like men farting at windmills. Returns for the social season at Bath. He has manwhored his way around Europe, but apparently we are still supposed to be rooting for his relationship with the virtuous Emilia, who's been waiting patiently at home for him.
— Sep 16, 2020 07:53AM
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Yes that's one of those unobjectionable words that feels almost impossible to use now. Sometimes when this happens, languages change their pronunciations to make them more acceptable (though I can't see that happening here, it was already getting too old-fashioned). But like ‘coney’ used to rhyme with money and honey until reading those bits of the Bible started to sound too rude.
I once read a horrible row about it online, so would say it is now regarded as objectionable for new writing, including fiction.
Some high-profile incidents about it in the US, going back over 20 years, which I hadn't heard about before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controv...Wondering if we should perhaps be using dashes in this thread. These terms have even made both of us jump regardless of understanding the etymology, so
I've been intending to read "Peregrine Pickle" ever since I saw Orwell's endorserment: "Duelling, gambling and fornication seen almost morally neutral to him."https://orwell.ru/library/reviews/smo...
Yes that about sums it up. Actually that review gets the moral tone perfectly.
1000Nights&AKnight wrote: "I've been intending to read "Peregrine Pickle" ever since I saw Orwell's endorserment: "Duelling, gambling and fornication seen almost morally neutral to him."https://orwell.ru/library/reviews/smo..."
That *is* a good review. If only it were 300 pages, rather than 900 I'd be thinking about having a go.
Humphry Clinker is still most popular of Smollett's on here despite Orwell's dismissal of it - presumably because enough university English departments disagree with him.
There was even a bit about "niggard traffickers" and the effect if hearing passively without analysing could seem like "we pray for everyone except slave-traders" and thinking that sounds surprisingly modern.