Questions of Appearances in Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker

On a first impression, on a first reading, Humphry Clinker is not a novel about appearances. For one, its plot doesn’t seem to revolve around appearances. None of the narrators, as main characters (though not all the ‘main’ characters are narrators, and even to call some of them ‘narrators’ could be problematic, but we will get back to this) could be said, for example, to be concealing something (or putting on an appearance), worried about appearances, or their life and/or future to depend much on appearances (that is, especially if we compare them to other main characters/narrators such as Evelina, Moll Flanders or Roxana, in their respective novels). However…

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