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题目内容
题目材料：
Ralph Cohen, in his 1964 critical history of Thomson's The Seasons, argued nearly half a century ago that illustrations are criticism of the works they illustrate. More recently, critics have fruitfully explored illustrations of the works of Defoe and Sterne. In her study of graphic design and the novel, Janine Barchas has explained the function of illustrations as interpretive guides." Barchas mainly discusses frontispieces, but her point applies to other kinds of illustrations. In the case of Tobias Smollett, illustrations not only indicate what illustrators thought of the novels, but may also reveal how those novels were received by readers. The number and diversity of the images are especially valuable because, as Fred W. Boege long ago demonstrated, we know relatively little about how eighteenth-century readers conceived of Smollett as a novelist. Our understanding of Smollett's reception has improved since Boege's time, but some difficulties in knowing what readers thought of Smollett remain, because recorded responses are scanty. Roderick Random, for instance, did not receive any reviews, since it was published before reviewing contemporary fiction became widespread. And reviews of the other novels consist mainly of large excerpts from the work itself with a few general remarks on how well the characters are conceived. Nor do the few responses we have provide a consistent picture of how Smollett was read. The illustrations, therefore, give us alternative perspectives that can only enrich our understanding of Smollett's reception.
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