Robert Martin Lesuire

"He had led thee into my arms, through a labyrinth of extraordinary adventures."

That was pretty good! Especially for the time period. Its a light romantic romp with all the cliches. Evil uncles, twins, disgiuses of sex etc. Although our hero has someone he's in love with it doesn't stop him sleeping around a fair bit, so its naughtier than you might expect.

The main downside is also its main upside, it moves at a very quick pace... never taking itself too seriously and our protagonist goes from one ridiculous situation to another. At this rate by the end of the 3rd volume he'll have had as many jobs as Homer Simpson.
There's just no breathing room, but still its a pretty fun ride. According to wiki the 17th century bibliographer Quérard called it a 'cluster of incoherent follies that delighted frivolous readers'... yeah that about sums it up ;) .

"I recollected that paſſage of Don Quixote, where the inimitable Cervantes ingeniouſly deſcribes the madmen throwing their excrements in people's faces: reputed ſuch, I thought I might indulge myſelf in a ſimilar vengeance in regard to this wretch. His ugly face received all the aſperſion."

Edition Notes: The only edition i've seen is on google and uses the Medial-S as its called which you can see above, so it requires a bit of parsing.
For some reason its also quite difficult to find all 3 volumes on google, so heres the direct links:
Vol 1
Vol 2
Vol 3… (plus d'informations)

"Thus I played the little Robinſon Cruſoe... I ſhall not grow dull upon a fituation which, in the original, is very intereſting, but the copy of which can only be ſo by a more rapid and more expeditious progreſs."

This story continues to be complete schlock, but fun schlock. Where as the first volume used every imaginable romance storyline this one expands to include high-seas, desert island and lost civilization adventures with somemore heavy satire at the excesses of organized religon.

I'm actually wondering if H.G.Wells could have read this as there are elements reminiscent of aspects of [b:The Time Machine|2493|The Time Machine|H.G. Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327942880l/2493._SY75_.jpg|3234863] and the short story, [b:The Country of the Blind|906484|The Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories|H.G. Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328867795l/906484._SY75_.jpg|75987991].

More fun and more thought provoking than the [b:first part|52931477|The French Adventurer, Vol 1|Robert-Martin Lesuire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585985520l/52931477._SY75_.jpg|59221212].… (plus d'informations)

"...I was drolly truſſed up. I had horns upon my head; my arms were paſſed in a ſort of breeches; and above all I carried before me the figure of a very big Priapus."

I was almost looking forward to giving this 2 stars, i'm a little embarrassed that this schlock had my attention all the way to the end.
As i'm sure i've said in reviewing the previous parts, this is not well written and has all the melodrama and coincidences and cliches of 18th century romance. However it just doesn't care.. the author just keeps things ever changing and never lets you get too bored.

The first third of this one is mostly action but introduces Austral-France (aka Antarctick-France, Antarctic-France), which is vaguely based on a real place. But its not really used for satire like you might expect.

The 2nd third has a really effective allegory against slavery, even if it ends up pretty misogynistic. There's a bit of sci-fi and some politics thrown in.

The final third is mostly just clean up... and it was here i was waiting for the boredom to set in. But despite all the cliches and predictability i was actually invested. Probably just because the whole thing feels so tongue-n-cheek.

This whole story has been remarkably free from moralizing too which is refreshing for 18th century prose.
Overall, the complete three volumes are certainly one of the more readable of 18th century products (despite its use of the Long-S).

"Indeed, had I not a good grace in pretending to fift the condućt of my love, after all the liberties I had to conceal in my own?"… (plus d'informations)