History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Henry Fielding

Classics / Fiction / Literature

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. The novel is both a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. First published on 28 February 1749 in London, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel, and is the earliest novel mentioned by W. Somerset Maugham in his 1948 book Great Novelists and Their Novels among the ten best novels of the world. Totaling 346,747 words, it is divided into 18 smaller books, each preceded by a discursive chapter, often on topics unrelated to the book itself. It is dedicated to George Lyttleton. Though lengthy, the novel is highly organised; S. T. Coleridge argued that it has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned". Although critic Samuel Johnson took exception to Fielding\'s "robust distinctions between right and wrong", it became a best seller, with four editions being published in its first year alone. Tom Jones is generally regarded as Fielding\'s greatest book, and as a very influential English novel.
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Tom Jones

Tom Jones

Henry Fielding

Classics / Fiction / Literature

Tom Jones is generally regarded as Fielding's greatest book and as a very influential English novel.The main theme of this comic novel is the contrast between Tom Jones's good nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil's hypocrisy. Secondary themes include several other examples of virtue, hypocrisy, and villainy, sometimes tempered by repentance. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones,Comedy, Comical, Farce, farcical, love, romance, virtue, hypocrisy, villainy, repentance
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The Works of Henry Fielding, vol. 11

The Works of Henry Fielding, vol. 11

Henry Fielding

Classics / Fiction / Literature

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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Joseph Andrews

Joseph Andrews

Henry Fielding

Classics / Fiction / Literature

Joseph Andrews refuses Lady Booby's advances, she discharges him, and Joseph and his old tutor, Parson Adams (one of the great comic figures of literature), sets off to visit his sweetheart, Fanny. Along the way, they meet with a series of adventures in which, through their own innocence and honesty, they expose the hypocrisy and affectation of others.Review(in full The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams) Novel by Henry Fielding, published in 1742. It was written as a reaction against Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740). Joseph Andrews begins as a burlesque of Pamela, but the parodic intention of the novel soon becomes secondary, and it develops into a masterpiece of sustained irony and social criticism. At its center is Parson Adams, one of the great comic figures of literature. Joseph and the parson have a series of adventures, in all of which they manage to expose the hypocrisy and affectation of others through their own innocence and guilelessness. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of LiteratureFrom the Back CoverJoseph Andrews, first published in 1742, is in part a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela. But whereas Richardson's novel is marked by the virtues of female chastity and the triumph of steadfast morality, Fielding's Joseph Andrews is peopled with lascivious women, thieves, hypocrites, and general fools. As we follow the characters in their travels, what unfolds is a lively panoramic satire of mid-Georgian England.
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