The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom

Smollett hands his novel to a villain and lets him run. Ferdinand, born to a camp-following mother on the battlefields of Europe and awarding himself the title of Count, is a predator in lace cuffs: a gambler, seducer, and confidence man who works his way through the drawing rooms of the Continent and England, fleecing the vain and betraying every hand that helps him.

The pleasure is watching the machinery of each scheme, and waiting for it to jam. Along the way Smollett writes some genuinely eerie set pieces, including a night in a forest hut that critics count among the first true Gothic scenes in English fiction, decades before the genre had a name. A dark, sardonic picaresque for anyone who enjoys rooting against a magnificent scoundrel.

At roughly 165,800 words, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom runs about 18½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

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