Novel
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Henry Fielding · 1749
Opening lines
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
A Somerset squire, Allworthy, finds an infant in his bed and raises him as his own son, alongside his sister's son, Blifil, who is almost the same age and cannot bear him. Grown up, Tom pleases the village girls as much as the ladies, and loves Sophia, the neighbour's daughter, who is destined precisely for his rival. The latter has only to let things happen and to report: one day of drunkenness is enough to get the foundling thrown out, and he sets off for Bristol to take ship. Sophia, whom they want to marry off by force, runs away in her turn a few days later.
Context
The novel appeared in 1749, built in eighteen books each of which opens with a chapter in which the narrator discusses his own craft, interrupts his story and addresses the reader directly. Its author declared himself the founder of a new province of writing, which he had first called the comic epic in prose. He had practised on the novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, first in a parody published under a pseudonym and never acknowledged by him, then in a second book, also anonymous, which abandons parody along the way.
Who it is for
More than a thousand pages in eighteenth-century English, translated into French; the opening chapters of each book can be read separately.
Prizes and reception
Translated into French as early as 1750 by Pierre-Antoine de La Place, in a version immediately suppressed by order of the Conseil d'État, then given in full in 1795.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.