ABSTRACT
The excellence of Tobias Smollett's prose has conferred upon him a pre-eminent place in the history of English literature. Smollett grew fascinated with Don Quixote in as much as he was obsessed with writing the first canonical novel in the English language. He may have started working on his translation of Don Quixote before or approximately at the time he began his first novel. Smollett's English translation of Don Quixote appeared in 1755, and its subsequent editions outnumbered any other English version in the eighteenth century. It has been suggested that Smollett's usage of a deus ex machina was inspired by Don Quixote. Smollett's satire cannot be deemed Cervantean; however, there are a number of Cervantic elements which bear evidence of Smollett's admiration for Don Quixote and his zeal to pay homage to Cervantes, namely the use of Dulcinea as a noun and the usage of a pseudo-Sanchoesque character, like Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle contains some Cervantic vocabulary.
