Roderick Random's story is a classic rambunctious tale of rags and riches, set in the mid-eighteenth century.

Roderick's father goes mad soon after he is born, in grief at his beloved wife's death. Roderick is cast into life as a virtual orphan, tumbles through a wild time at school, and ends up, on leaving, escaping to the heaving metropolis of London. There he encounters, with his best friend Strap, characters of a huge variety; card-sharpers, fallen women, bumbling doctors and malicious quacks, and very dubious gentlemen-about-town. He finally goes to sea after an inordinate waiting period spent hazarding the interminable bureaucracy of trying to get a place as a ship's medic. His fortunes rise and fall it seems on the spin of a coin, diving into indigence after being raised to the heights of elegance, time and again. His luck with women is similarly strange-starred and various, until one day he meets the lovely Narcissa Topehall and his heart is given forever.

In splendidly picaresque scenes Smollett's story ranges from tattered London to the high social intensities of Bath society, to France and the soldier's life, out to sea and the West Indies and South America, roiling with grotesque humour and biting satire. With the support of a few good friends and despite the resistance of a goodl;y number of enemies, Roderick's fortunes are tested, luck and fate rolling the dice as to his chances, forging a scapegrace hero fit for his times.