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The greatest walks in literature

Joseph Andrews

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Henry Fielding (1707-1754) started his career as a playwright until his outspoken satirical plays so annoyed Walpole's Government that a new Licensing Act was introduced to drive him from the stage. He turned to writing various 'comic epics in prose', including Shamela and Tom Jones. A master innovator, he is credited with creating the first modern novels in English. He was also a magistrate and co-founder of the Bow Street Runners, often dubbed as London's first professional police force. 
 
Tom Jones is also published in the Penguin English Library.

With an essay by Mark Spilka. 
 
'Kissing, Joseph, is but a prologue to a Play. Can I believe a young fellow of your Age and Complexion will be content with Kissing?' 
 
Henry Fielding's riotous tale of innocents in a corrupt world was one of the earliest English novels, blending bawdy slapstick, philosophical musing and pointed social satire to create a work of moral complexity and generous, life-affirming humanity. Published in 1742, it tells the story of the chaste servant Joseph Andrews who, after being sacked for spurning the advances of the lascivious Lady Booby, takes to the road, accompanied by his beloved Fanny Goodwill and the absent-minded, much put-upon Parson Adams. There they encounter robbers, tricksters, seducers, mishaps and strange twists of fortune, in a series of adventures filled with exuberant comedy. 
 
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

and The Female Husband

The History of Tom Jones

One of the cleverest and funniest novels ever written, Tom Jones is Henry Fielding's greatest achievement.

The plotting is complex, astonishing and perfect.  It brims with good nature and generosity of spirit...it's full of jokes, suspense, cliffhangers, narrative reversals and pathos'

I think the Oedipus Tyrannus, The Alchemist, and Tom Jones, the three most perfect plots ever planned. And how charming, how wholesome, Fielding always is! To take him up after Richardson, is like emerging from a sick room heated by stoves, into an open lawn, on a breezy day in May

Edward Gibbon, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

I am shocked to hear you quote from so vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read it: a confession which no modest lady should ever make

Henry Fielding was born near Glastonbury on 22 April 1707. He was educated at Eton and became a prominent writer of plays, political satires and novels.He is regarded as a key figure in the development of the English novel.His most famous works are Joseph Andrews (1742), Tom Jones (1749) and Amelia (1751).Many elements in Tom Jones are based on Fielding's own experiences and the character of Sophia is based on his first wife, Charlotte. The Female Husband is a pamphlet that Fielding published anonymously in 1746. The story is based on the true case of a woman who was prosecuted for masquerading as a man and marrying another woman. Although he continued to write until his death, Fielding also worked as a magistrate from 1749 and was instrumental in paving the way for the foundation of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Henry Fielding died near Lisbon on 8 October 1754.

One of the cleverest and funniest novels ever written, Tom Jones is Henry Fielding's greatest achievement. 
 
 Tom Jones, born a foundling, grown into a gallant and irresistible hero, romps through the English countryside getting himself into all kinds of trouble through his good nature and eye for the ladies. Betrayed by jealous relatives, Tom is exiled from home and must undergo a variety of trials and adventures in his quest to be reunited with his one true love and redeem himself in the eyes of society.

A new edition of Henry Fielding's exuberant satire, chronicling the life, loves and fortunes of Tom Jones.

Henry Fielding's picaresque tale of a young man's search for his place in the world, The History of Tom Jones is edited with notes and an introduction by Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely in Penguin Classics. 
 
A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire - though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is banished to make his own fortune. Sophia, meanwhile, is determined to avoid an arranged marriage to Allworthy's scheming nephew and escapes from her rambunctious father to follow Tom to London. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature. 
 
In his introduction Thomas Keymer discusses narrative techniques and themes, the context of eighteenth century fiction and satire, and the historical and political background of the Jacobite rebellion. This volume also includes a chronology, further reading, notes, a glossary and an appendix on Fielding's revisions. 
 
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) born at Sharpham Park, in Somerset, was a dramatist, novelist, political agitator and founder of London's first police force, the 'Bow Street Runners'. As a playwright he was a thorn in the side of Sir Robert Walpole's Whig government, who effectively legislated his retirement from the theatre with the Licensing Act of 1737. Undeterred, Fielding launched his career as a novelist in 1740 with Shamela (a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela), followed by Joseph Andrews (1741), an anticipation of his masterpiece, the comic novel Tom Jones (1749). 
 
If you enjoyed The History of Tom Jones, you might like Henry Fielding's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also available in Penguin Classics.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) began his career as a novelist in 1740 with Shamela (written as a negative response to Richardson's Pamela). The following year, he published Joseph Andrews, with which he anticipates his masterpiece, Tom Jones. His final work, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, was published posthumously in 1755. Thomas Keymer is Elmore Fellow and Tutor in English at St Anne's College, Oxford. His books include Sterne, the Moderns, and the Novel (2002), and co-edited with John Mee, The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830 (2004). Alice Wakely completed a doctoral dissertation on Samuel Richardson at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is currently at the University of York. 
 
 
Thomas Keymer is Elmore Fellow and Tutor in English at St Anne's College, Oxford. His books include Richardson's Clarissa and the 18th Century Reader (1992), Sterne, the Moderns, and the Novel (2002), and co-edited with John Mee, The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830 (2004). 
Alice Wakely completed a doctoral dissertation on Samuel Richardson at Magdalen College, Oxford and is currently at the University of York. 
The editors have previously collaborated on the OUP World's Classics edition of Richardson's Pamela (2001).

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire - though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is banished to make his own fortune. Sophia, meanwhile, is determined to avoid an arranged marriage to Allworthy's scheming nephew and escapes from her rambunctious father to follow Tom to London.

Joseph Andrews & Shamela

Henry Fielding (1707 - 54) started his career as a playwright until his outspoken satirical plays so annoyed Walpole's Government that a new Licensing Act was introduced to drive him from the stage. He turned to writing various 'comic epics in prose', including SHAMELA (1741), JOSEPH ANDREWS (1742) and TOM JONES (1749). A master innovator, he is credited with creating the first modern novels in English. Judith Hawley is a lecturer in English at Royal Holloway, University of London.

SHAMELA is a brilliant parody of Samuel Richardson's PAMELA, in which a virtuous servant girl long resists her master's advances and is eventually 'rewarded' with marriage. Fielding's far more spirited and sexually honest heroine, by contrast, merely uses coyness and mock modesty as techniques to catch a rich husband. JOSEPH ANDREWS, Fielding's first full-length novel, can also be seen as a response to Richardson, as the lascivious Lady Booby sets out to seduce her comically chaste servant Joseph, (himself in love with the much-put-upon Fanny Goodwill). As in Tom Jones, Fielding takes a huge cast of characters out on the road and exposes them to many colourful and often hilarious adventures.

Joseph Andrews And Shamela

The finest editions available of the world's greatest classics from Homer to Achebe, Tolstoy to Ishiguro, Proust to Pullman, printed on a fine acid-free, cream-wove paper that will not discolour with age, with sewn, full cloth bindings and silk ribbon markers, and at remarkably low prices. All books include substantial introductions by major scholars and contemporary writers, and comparative chronologies of literary and historical context.

Fielding's satire on Richardsons's Pamela has survived its model in popularity for obvious reasons: the combination of breezy comedy, knockabout farce, lively narrative and vigorous satire is irresistible. But above all, it is the character of Parson Adams who continues to breathe life into the story, imbued as he is with so much of Fielding's own generosity, humanity and warm-heartedness. Conceived as a literary parody, Joseph Andrews (1742) rises triumphantly above its original purpose as a great novel in its own right. It is paired with the splendidly bawdy (Shamela 1741), another skit on Pamela. The explanatory notes are by Professor A. R. Humphreys. The Everyman edition is recognised as the definitive edition.

Tom Jones

Tom Jones is one of the earliest English novels, and was hugely popular when it was first published in 1749. It tells the story of the foundling Tom and his journey towards adulthood and marriage. As might be expected, this journey is a complicated one: Tom falls in love with a neighbour's daughter, discovers that he has a rival for his love in the shape of the unpleasant Master Blifil, and is expelled from Mr Allworthy's house after a series of misadventures.

Henry Fielding

With an essay by R. C. P. Mutter. 
 
'"Sir, I am concerned at the Trouble I give you; nay indeed my Nakedness may well make me ashamed to look you in the Face ..." Jones offered her his Coat; but, I know not for what Reason, she absolutely refused the most earnest Solicitations to accept it' 
 
A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire - though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is banished to make his own fortune. Sophia, meanwhile, is determined to avoid an arranged marriage to Allworthy's scheming nephew and escapes from her rambunctious father to follow Tom to London. 
 
A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections.

Henry Fielding

Tom Jones

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