Modern Chivalry

Like <I>Don Quixote</I> Sterne's <I>Tristram Shandy</I> and Fielding's <I>Tom Jones</I> <I>Modern Chivalry</I> is a tale of adventuring episodic and exciting. Despite the author's European inspirations it is a distinctively American book not just because of its homespun native characters and slapstick humor but also because it is a narrative of journeying and questing. As it follows Captain Farrago and his sidekick on their travels the book's premise becomes clear-that democracy as practiced in America is valuable and worthy but that it is subject to malfunctions when tinkered with by unfit men.