Leer The Adventures of Roderick Random online gratis (en inglés)

THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE Of all kinds of satire, there is none so entertaining and universally improving, as that which is introduced, as it were occasionally, in the course of an interesting story, which brings every incident home to life, and by representing familiar scenes in an uncommon and amusing point of view, invests them with all the graces of novelty,…

Así empieza

Of all kinds of satire, there is none so entertaining and universally
improving, as that which is introduced, as it were occasionally, in the
course of an interesting story, which brings every incident home to
life, and by representing familiar scenes in an uncommon and amusing
point of view, invests them with all the graces of novelty, while
nature is appealed to in every particular. The reader gratifies his
curiosity in pursuing the adventures of a person in whose favour he is
prepossessed; he espouses his cause, he sympathises with him in his
distress, his indignation is heated against the authors of his
calamity: the humane passions are inflamed; the contrast between
dejected virtue and insulting vice appears with greater aggravation,
and every impression having a double force on the imagination, the
memory retains the circumstance, and the heart improves by the example.
The attention is not tired with a bare catalogue of characters, but
agreeably diverted with all the variety of invention; and the
vicissitudes of life appear in their peculiar circumstances, opening an
ample field for wit and humour.

Romance, no doubt, owes its origin to ignorance, vanity, and
superstition. In the dark ages of the World, when a man had rendered
himself famous for wisdom or valour, his family and adherents availed
themselves of his superior qualities, magnified his virtues, and
represented his character and person as sacred and supernatural. The
vulgar easily swallowed the bait, implored his protection, and yielded
the tribute of homage and praise, even to adoration; his exploits were
handed down to posterity with a thousand exaggerations; they were
repeated as incitements to virtue; divine honours were paid, and altars
erected to his memory, for the encouragement of those who attem

… sigue leyendo gratis en el lector inmersivo de Mirrow.