Modern Chivalry Containing the Adventures of Captain John Farrago and Teague O'Reagan, His Servant

Like Don Quixote, Sterne's Tristram Shandy, and Fielding's Tom Jones, Modern Chivalry is a tale of adventuring, episodic and exciting. Despite the author's European inspirations, it is a distinctively American book, not just because of its homespun, native characters and slapstick humor, but also because it is a narrative of journeying and questing. As it follows Captain Farrago and his sidekick on their travels, the book's premise becomes clear--that democracy as practiced in America is valuable and worthy, but that it is subject to malfunctions when tinkered with by unfit men.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748-1816) was a self-made man and a model of the versatile early American. He was a lawyer, politician, editor, teacher, essayist, preacher, and novelist