The Adventures of Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett (1753)

This novel is quite different to its two predecessors. While they were shambolic and variable accounts of the lives of young rakes, those rakes were often charming and likeable. This young Ferdinand is a hell-boy with no remediation. He is uniformly manipulative, selfish and unfeeling, and woe betide anyone who comes under his spell. And a spell is what it must be, as he manages to convince all and sundry of his being on their side, only to rip hell out of them on the quiet. Oddly this lively roast is not so flavoursome, because it is so unremitting. Finally in the last few chapters we leave him in gaol (not for the first time) and our attention is taken up by his ruined adopted brother and his ruined adored girl, her ruined father and some other well-had former well-wishers coming together and realising his perfidy. A few extraordinary co-incidences later we find that much of what Fathom has 'engineered' has come unstuck and that all their lives are freed of his blight. Right at the end they discover Fathom in a miserable state of destitution as the power of his ruses has finally dried up. As he lies dying, he realises the misery he has caused, repents, and engenders their forgiveness, which gifts him back his life. Perhaps Smollett had too many complaints during the original serial publication about Ferdinand's character and the bleakness of the unending catalogue of misery he causes. Whatever, the last few chapters save this from weighing too heavy.