Story summary
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Completeのあらすじ
- 読了8分
- 10 parts
- 音声は近日公開
A wagon-born camp follower's son charms households and robs them blind as he makes his way to London.
3 months free · unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost
Nothing to pay today · お支払いの前にメールでお知らせします · オンラインで二回クリックするだけで解約できます
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Completeの概要
要約：読むのに8 minかかります
- 読書時間
- 約9 h 55 min7 h 50 min fast, 11 h 50 min slow
- 所要時間
- 141,600語59 chapters
- ページ数
- 445ページ671 in large print
- ライブラリ内の難易度
- 読み応えがあります long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- 初版刊行年
- 1753by Tobias Smollett
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日
3か月間無料でご利用いただけます
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Completeの要約を最後まで無料で読めます
- 200,000+の古典を電子書籍、オーディオブック、15分で読める要約で楽しめます。紙の本と大活字本は印刷費のみで購入できます。
- ひとつのプランで、ご家庭の最大5人までご利用いただけます
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete in short
Ferdinand Count Fathom follows a boy born with no father and no fortune, who learns that charm opens every door. He deceives a generous colonel's family, a jeweler's household, and the fashionable world of London, always choosing prey who trust him. He wins with flattery and tears, and he escapes with luck and nerve.
What The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete is about
Where does a boy learn to cheat the world? In Ferdinand Count Fathom, the answer is a baggage wagon trailing an army across Flanders, where a camp follower gives birth to a son and cannot say who his father is. That boy grows into a graceful, charming young man who loves nobody but himself.
T. Smollett wrote this novel in the middle of the eighteenth century, and he chooses a villain on purpose. Fathom is a warning for anyone at the edge of wickedness. Beside him stands a virtuous young man named Renaldo. You travel from a Turkish battlefield to Vienna, Paris, London, and a debtors prison, and you see how each swindle works.
対象読者. Readers who enjoy rogues, con artists, and sharp satire will love this novel. Admirers of Fielding or Dickens will relish its scams, duels, and charming villain.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A camp follower's son learns charm before conscience
Ferdinand is born in a baggage wagon on the road between Holland and Flanders. No man will claim him, because his mother cannot say which admirer is the father. She follows the army of the great Marlborough, selling gin and clean linen to the soldiers. The boy inherits a strong body, a handsome face, and a quick mind, and nothing else.
His mother carries him to the Hungarian front, where Prince Eugene fights the Turks. At six he watches a great battle, and the camp is his school. She robs the dead and dying, but she spares one officer who cries out in English. The colonel, Count Melvil, is so grateful that he takes the boy into his household. Soon after, the mother dies, shot by a hidden hussar she tries to strip.
At nine Ferdinand mourns just enough to win his patron's heart, and Melvil raises him beside his own son, Renaldo, who is shy, honest, and clumsy. When Ferdinand copies Renaldo's exercise and Renaldo is whipped for it, Ferdinand weeps before the Count and leaves doubt behind. A ready tear is worth more than a clear conscience.
- 2無料で読書を始めます
Fathom plots with a maid to rob his patron
At sixteen Ferdinand sets his eye on the Count's daughter and the estate she inherits from an aunt.
- 3無料で読書を始めます
Two women in one house cannot hold him
When his humble origins close the doors of noble households, Ferdinand seeks shelter with a Vienna jeweler and wins over the entire family.
- 4無料で読書を始めます
Terror in a forest, dice in Paris
The two thieves wander into the French camp and pose as gentlemen who left the Austrian army.
- 5無料で読書を始めます
England welcomes the stranger, then bites
At Dover he kisses the English sand and takes a stagecoach to London.
- 6無料で読書を始めます
Robbed by his partners, he lands in jail
Fathom cannot pay the damages, so a sheriff's officer holds him.
- 7無料で読書を始めます
He turns two lovers against each other
Renaldo tells his friend of a young woman he loves, an orphan he plans to protect.
- 8無料で読書を始めます
Flattery and loneliness are the cheat's best tools
Fathom studies what each person craves and supplies exactly that.
- 9無料で読書を始めます
Fear, not sermons, is the book's moral teacher
In the dedication Smollett says that fear stays in memory longer than any other passion.
- 10無料で読書を始めます
A bold narrator, comic set pieces, borrowed grandeur
The narrator speaks to the reader from the first chapter and teases him.
Read all 10 key ideas now
3 months free, then USD 0.14 a day: unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost.
- Nothing to pay today
- お支払いの前にメールでお知らせします
- オンラインで二回クリックするだけで解約できます
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Ferdinand Count Fathom A charming, quick-witted son of a camp follower who wants wealth and pleasure and cheats everyone who trusts him to get them.
- Renaldo de Melvil The honest, awkward son of Fathom's patron, who loves deeply, trusts his friend, and wants to protect his family and the woman he loves.
- Count Melvil A generous Scottish colonel in Austrian service who takes in the orphan boy and hopes to raise him as a loyal companion for his son.
- Teresa Mademoiselle de Melvil's cunning maid, who becomes Fathom's first partner in scheming and theft and wants a share of his gains.
- Ratchcali A Tyrolese gambler who partners with Fathom in several countries and wants money for himself, whatever it costs his friends.
- Monimia A gentle, devout orphan who loves Renaldo and depends on his protection, until Fathom sets out to separate them.
- Don Diego de Zelos A proud Spanish nobleman living in disguise in Paris, driven from home by a terrible act, who trusts Fathom with his jewels.
- Captain Minikin A thin, solemn prisoner who speaks in scraps of poetry and French and guards his honor with great anxiety.
How it ends (spoiler)
Fathom's last tricks fail. Convicted in debt and sick in a poor lodging, he writes a letter of despair and repentance. Renaldo and his friends find him and, to everyone's surprise, forgive him. Monimia, believed dead, is alive and is really Don Diego's lost daughter Serafina. Renaldo marries her and Don Diego is restored. Fathom recovers, and his benefactors arrange a modest annuity for him and Elenor in northern England, pending proof of reform.
The whole book is coming to your plan
The full text of The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete opens soon. Keep this summary as a file today.
Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way. Email me when it is printed
『The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete』についての質問
What is The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom about?
It follows Ferdinand, a camp follower's son who uses charm and deceit to rob his benefactors across Europe. Beside him stands the honest Renaldo. The book is a dark comedy about how fraud works and what it costs.
Who is Ferdinand Count Fathom?
He is a soldier's orphan raised by a kind Hungarian count, who grows into a skilled swindler. He later calls himself Count Fathom in Paris and London, where his manners and languages win the trust of people he plans to rob.
Is Count Fathom a true story?
No, it is a novel by Tobias Smollett from the eighteenth century. It draws on real settings, such as the wars against the Turks, Paris, and London. Some figures, like King Theodore of Corsica, were real people.
Why did Smollett choose a villain as his hero?
In the dedication he says a villain can teach more through fear than a hero through virtue. He wants readers to see a swindler's miserable fate. He adds a virtuous character, Renaldo, to give contrast and relief.
Is Count Fathom worth reading today?
Yes for readers who enjoy satire and rogue stories. It offers lively scenes, sharp humor, and clear scenes of how scams work. Its comic prison court and fast travel keep the story moving.
この版を引用します
Smollett, Tobias. The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-adventures-of-ferdinand-count-fathom-complete.
Smollett, T. (2026). The adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-adventures-of-ferdinand-count-fathom-complete (Original work published 1753)
Smollett, Tobias. The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-adventures-of-ferdinand-count-fathom-complete.
@book{smollett2026adventures,
author = {Smollett, Tobias},
title = {The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-adventures-of-ferdinand-count-fathom-complete},
note = {First published 1753}
}
Crime and Punishment
Wuthering Heights
Pride and Prejudice
The Iliad
Romeo and Juliet
The Picture of Dorian Gray3か月間無料でご利用いただけます
The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Completeの要約を最後まで無料で読めます
- 200,000+の古典を電子書籍、オーディオブック、15分で読める要約で楽しめます。紙の本と大活字本は印刷費のみで購入できます。
- ひとつのプランで、ご家庭の最大5人までご利用いただけます
