William Combe

author

William Combe

1742–1823

Best remembered for the comic Dr. Syntax books, this lively English writer mixed satire, travel parody, and sheer productivity into a career as colorful as his stories. His life swung between fashionable literary circles and long years of financial trouble, which gave his work a sharp, worldly edge.

2 Audiobooks

The first of April; or, The triumphs of folly A poem dedicated to a celebrated duchess. By the author of The Diaboliad.

The first of April; or, The triumphs of folly A poem dedicated to a celebrated duchess. By the author of The Diaboliad.

by William Combe

The History of Johnny Quæ Genus, the Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

The History of Johnny Quæ Genus, the Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax. A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours.

by William Combe

About the author

William Combe was an English writer and satirist born in 1742 and died in 1823. He wrote in both prose and verse, and became especially well known for The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax, a comic series created with illustrator Thomas Rowlandson. The books poke fun at the era's taste for picturesque travel and helped make Dr. Syntax one of the memorable comic figures of the early nineteenth century.

Combe lived a notably unsettled life. He was educated at Eton and moved through fashionable society, but repeated money problems shaped much of his adulthood. Accounts of his life often note that he spent many years living within the rules of the King's Bench Prison for debt, even while continuing to write steadily for publishers.

That combination of wit, hustle, and hard experience helps explain the tone of his work. He was a prolific miscellaneous writer, producing satire, imitation, and popular literary entertainments, and he remains of interest both for his own writing and for his collaboration with Rowlandson.