Tobias Smollett in his creation of the Scot Roderick Random exposes the sheer incompetence and injustice of the Royal Navy as well as the snobbery and hypocrisy prevalent in English middle-class society at the time. Set in the mid-18th century this picaresque novel follows the life and adventures of Roderick the eponymous hero who has been shunned by his gentleman father''s family on the basis of the lowliness of his mother''s family. Expelled from school Roderick falls back on his natural wit a