Reading The Adventures of Roderick Random | Alexandria
Read The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett. Upending social hierarchies, this bawdy picaresque icon exposes how random chance - not merit - determines success, delivering a prescient critique of capitalism's myth of meritocracy through its wandering hero's misfortunes. Smollett's radical premise? True character emerges not from status but from how we handle life's arbitrary cruelties.