Emma Tennant, The Adventures of Robina

Gina Wisker (University of Brighton)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1987

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Picaresque

Resources

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Emma Tennant's

The Adventures of Robina

is really an autobiography of her own growing up. The novel uses the diction and register of an eighteenth-century text to record in picaresque fashion the naive adventures of red-haired, 15-year-old Robina. It follows the story of Robina, fresh down from her tight fisted relatives in Scotland, “finished” at a low grade, rather suspect finishing school, then brought out as a debutante in the season. Robina's easy seduction and consistent surprise at being tricked, misled, seduced and ripped off recalls

Moll Flanders

and

Tom Jones

, as well as

Manon Lescaut

. This novel makes amusing and clever use of such eighteenth-century testimony to explore truth and innocence, naiveté, lack of any culpability, while recording a series of dubious adventures.…

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447 words

Citation: Wisker, Gina. "The Adventures of Robina". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1637, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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