Product Description
Tom Jones (1749) is rightly regarded as Fielding's greatest work, and one of the first and most influential of English novels.At the center of one of the most ingenious plots in English fiction stands a hero whose actions were, in 1749, as shocking as they are funny today. This carefully modernized edition is based on Fielding's emended fourth edition text and offers the most thorough Notes, Maps, and Bibliography. ... Read more

Product Description
Widely considered to be one of the first true English novels, Fielding's "Tom Jones," written in 1749, revolves around the life and experiences of an orphaned baby who grows up to be a kind-hearted, if overly vigorous, young man. Tom is brought up by the generous Mr. Allworthy on his Somerset estate, where Tom eventually falls in love with his beautiful neighbor, Sophia Western. Because of his partially unknown parentage, however, their respective guardians are against the match. When Tom is banished due to his occasionally heated temper and sexual encounters with local girls, he has an adventure full of danger and surprise, and he ultimately follows Sophia to London, who herself flees from an undesirable arranged marriage. Generally acknowledged as Fielding's greatest work, "Tom Jones" takes the hero through an inventive plot that will entertain and astonish readers to the revealing conclusion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Very entertaining while pointing out some interesting principles
First off, this is a review of the audio book version of Tom Jones.The unabridged audio book was narrated by Kenneth Danziger.The reader did an excellent job of using a different voice for each major character.I find this to be very useful and it makes it easier for me to envision the different speakers, especially when they sound like what I would imagine them to sound like.This version is very good and is highly recommended.

I had some preconceptions about this novel that made me a bit wary to read it, but I ended up really liking it.I had thought that it would glorify sexual immorality, but it turned out not to be the case.The story was told in a very entertaining fashion and the main character was very likable despite his flaws.Many other characters also had this dichotomy of good and bad, but that tends to follow real life.The principle of forgiveness is illustrated in this book extremely well.We can all learn from this.

I highly recommend this book, especially for those interested in one of the earliest and most influential English novels ever written.It is still fresh even today.It would probably merit a PG or PG13 by today's standards.It was considered quite racy when it first came out, though it does adhere to the moral code of the time quite well when considering consequences of immoral actions.

avoid the Penguin Classics edition
What a fun novel:one of the first and best.But you should go with the Signet paperback instead.This one gets hard to read.

This edition retains the original, unabridged text as printed, which may sound like what you want but gets to be pretty irritating.Original punctuation is retained, as is the Fielding's italicizing of all character names all the time -- not to mention capitalizing every common noun, as was the German-inspired fashion at the time of publication. Antiquated spellings are also intact.This gets very distracting.

I'm glad this is out there, but I'm surprised Penguin did this.It makes the book much harder to read:couldn't they have left such a scholarly edition for some university press somewhere?

TOO MUCH FOR ME!
This book is so well written it was a shame I could not finish its almost 900 pages. I simply found the tale too silly, too uninteresting to continue. It seemed just to be the rather mindless adventures of the hero, Tom Jones, as he fights over women, fights with soldiers and his friends ... with everyone. I need something a bit more serious and profound. I even watched the overly long film as I read, and even found the film to be inane. If you like light-hearted nonsense with lots of characters coming and going, then you might enjoy this. It was just not my style, although the actual writing is great!!!

Fielding
Henry Fielding is certainly one of my favorite novelists; he is also one of the first English novelists that really matter. Dickens admired him as much as Chesterton. His style and his wit are both remarkable: I need only pick up a chapter of this tale and I'm at once helplessly thrown to the world of Tommy Jones and the hilariously real characters that bounce all around him. This is a tale about good and wicked characters; but mostly wicked characters.

Read TOM JONES if you are interested in befriending the author. If, however, you have a critical agenda, I suggest you not bother Henry Fielding. For your sake, don't. He'll never let you hear the end of it.

One for the Ages ...
Oh, dear David, dear Czarina. The Patriarch was indulging in a rather jolly few lines of literary (if not Eighteenth Century) irony, with a witty dash of pop culture thrown in, and I'm afraid that you both sound rather pompous and, well, a bit snotty, in your responses. If Fielding suggests anything to the unhappy human race, it's the value of a sense of humor. And he certainly would enjoy a little joke at the expense of his novel. Laurence Sterne would have approved, too. It's a wonderful book. And it made a hugely entertaining film, although that has not quite stood the test of time as the novel, indeed, has. Here's a thing that occurs to me; we read this back in the late 1960s at my (public, State-funded) High School in England. Sad to say, I doubt young people enjoy such an introduction to the classic novels these days; back then it was expected that we would read, discuss and write essays on the likes of "Tom Jones" and "The Waste Land" and "Pride and Prejudice" and "Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man", just four of the titles that were required texts for our ordinary, small-town, not-particularly-remarkable High School English class. And amazingly, ENJOY reading them. Oh, bring back those days, somebody, please ... but minus the racism, homophobia and sexism. Oh wait ... we still have those, don't we? I wonder what Fielding has to say about that ... let's see ... ... Read more

Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1893Original Publisher: J.M. DentNotes: This is an OCR reprint of the original rare book. There may be typos or missing text and there are no illustrations.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Most Intelligent and Hilarious Satire of Social Hypocrisy - Ever
Second only to Voltaire's Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics), Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews is the funniest, most intelligent, satirical commentary I've ever read. Actually, let's get rid of the qualifiers, Joseph Andrews is one of the two funniest books I've ever read. (I first read it in college and it introduced me to the idea that important old books could also be highly entertaining, interesting, and illuminating.)

The book was first published in 1742 under the title "The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams" to some controversy. Fielding did not hesitate to poke merciless fun at just about everything 'respectable': religion, the law, lords and ladies, and sexual mores. Fielding attacked the moral hypocrisy of Joseph Richardson's popular Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World's Classics). (Fielding also wrote a short work, Shamela, that was a direct response to Pamela. Shamela is often sold together with Joseph Andrews See e.g.,Joseph Andrews and Shamela (Penguin Classics).) Pamela created a huge literary controversy; Shamela and Joseph Andrews were just two of many mocking responses, although few others survive (see, e.g. Anti-Pamela and Shamela).

Joseph (who is Pamela's brother!) is a genial but naïve rustic and a footman in the service of Lady Booby (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). When Joseph rejects her very direct and bawdy advances, Lady Booby sends him packing. Joseph then begins walking home from London to the country to seek out (and marry) Fanny Goodwill, his lifelong sweetheart. Along the way he meets his hometown friend the amiable and forgetful Parson Abraham Adams. Parson Adams is on his way to London to sell his sermons for publication. When Adams discovers he has forgotten to pack said sermons, he and Joseph decide to travel home together. The trip is the departure point for many adventures and mishaps that expose the society's hypocrisy and inequities. Along the way, the reader meets many colorful characters whose pretensions often land them in dire circumstances - furnishing much hilarity to us.

Fielding purported to aim at nothing less the invention of a new literary form, the "comic epic-poem in prose". He says in his Preface, "it may not be improper to premise a few words concerning this kind of writing, which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language." Fielding, however, was also known to write 'serio-comic', ironic introductions to his works, so some caution is in order. Nonetheless, the Preface accurately describes his "comic epic-poem in prose" as "differing from comedy, as the serious epic from tragedy: its action being more extended and comprehensive; containing a much larger circle of incidents, and introducing a greater variety of characters. It differs from the serious romance in its fable and action, in this: that as in the one these are grave and solemn, so in the other they are light and ridiculous; it differs in its characters, by introducing persons of inferiour rank, and consequently of inferiour manners, whereas the grave romance sets the highest before us; lastly in its sentiments and diction; by preserving the ludicrous instead of the sublime."

Absolutely the highest possible recommendation.

A fun read and enoyable book
Henry Fielding wrote one of the great comic novels in Tom Jones. Joseph Andrews is similar in nature but falls far short of Fielding's, masterpiece. The book starts out well enough. A handsome, viral young man of low birth (Andrews) is placed in the family of Lord and Lady Booby. The mistress takes a fancy to Andrews and makes him her footman. Lord Booby dies and the lady tries to force her affections on poor Joseph. Being virtuous, as well as attractive to the opposite sex, he refuses her advances and is promptly dismissed.Joseph then sets out to London to meet his true love, Fanny, and along the way joins up with his mentor, Parson Adams, a kind of Don Quixote character complete with a stumbling horse.Before too long Fanny joins the retinue. A good start.

But Fielding gets into trouble because he can't seem to make up his mind as to who his protagonist is. As Joseph begins his journey he is set upon by a group of robbers, beaten, and left naked in a ditch. A coach comes by and the passengers debate whether or not to save him.At last, persuaded that if they did not try they might be liable to be sued for his death they agree to take him up. But a "lady" riding inside the coach refuses to allow a naked man to be placed beside her. There then ensues a debate over who will give their coat to cover Joseph. This depiction is both humorous and a telling commentary of British values in the first half of the eighteenth century. But Andrews it seems is too staid and pure to be the target of the kind low slapstick comedy that Fielding has in mind, thus much of the remainder of the book focuses on the adventures and foibles of the good parson.Joseph is reduced to the role of defender of Fanny and the parson from various assaults on their person and character.

Fielding also goes off on tangents such as the story of Leonora,Mr. Wilson's life history and the tale told by the parson's son toward the end of the book. Fielding's intent is to display some aspects of the social mores of the times, but these asides distract from the flow of the story. At the end of the book Mr. Wilson's history does, in fact, come to play an important part in the story, but the others are mere sidebars to the action. One interesting diversion does occur when Fielding, as an author talking directly to the reader, interjects into the story to provide a rationale for why books are divided into chapters.

Finally, after a series of humorous and often outrageous adventures Joseph, Fanny and Parson Adams return home and face a new series of problems when Lady Booby re-enters the picture and continues her pursuit of Joseph.At his point other characters including Joseph's sister, Pamela and her husband, Mr. Booby (Lady Booby's nephew), a pedlar, an obsequious character, Beau Didapper who lusts after Fanny, the elder Mr. and Mrs. Andrews and finally Mr. and Mrs. Wilson add to the complications. This section of the book is filled with rollicking humor (including a wonderful scene where Parson Adams mistakes Mrs. Slipslop for a man and battles with her in bed and then wanders into Fanny's bed where he is discovered by Joseph), mystery, and problematic situations (including the possibility that Joseph and Fanny are really brother and sister!), until after a tortuous series of events all ends well with even Lady Booby finding love, or at least lust.

I give the book four stars because it really is not on a par with the great comic novels. But it is a fun and enjoyable read. Joseph Andrews is a humorous book and Fielding provides a look at the foibles and character of various English types in his era. The book is well worth reading even though it falls short of the great pieces of satire and humorous literature.

18th century England away from court and cathedral
This is a fine work both to allow the reader insight into England in the 18th century away from court and cathedral, and to provide a peek into the early invention of the English novel.

Fielding's characters paint a vivid picture of how well, or how poorly, people reside within their assigned class levels. Parson Adams, though often playing the naive fool, establishes an expectation of noble Christian behaviour against which Fielding's 'Canterbury Tale'-like characters can be measured. At the same time, Fielding uses Adams to allow the title character to evolve from the pure innocent, who falls into difficulty, to become resurrected as the fully realized, real-life hero.

As a story of life among the lower and middle classes, this is a fine read. But I found the brilliant, excellent construction of this novel to be a real eye-opener as far as the development of the early novel is concerned.

Andrews, Parson, and Fanny
This book was assigned to me in my British Literature class for a book club.Shortly after being assigned this book, I quickly went out and began reading it.While Fielding's writing style does seem to run on a bit, his narrative wit and dialogue is enjoyable.

I found myself liking the three main characters, Parson Adams in particular.He told some interesting stories, and has kind of an older brother relationship with Joesph, making him a good side character.The brief moments of action were pretty good in the story, as were the humorous bits.Its easy to see why this novel will go down as one a classic in literature.

Shamela: Parodies-Unlike Their Originals-Are Read Only Once
Henry Fielding wrote SHAMELA for the best of all reasons: he needed the money. The fact that Richardson's earlier PAMELA had been begging for burlesque in its absurdities and pretensions can be seen only as a contributory reason. In his preface, Fielding makes it clear that he has placed Richardson's heroine squarely in his sights. He attempts to expose "the many notorious Falsehoods and Misrepresentations of a Book called Pamela, Are exposed and refuted; and all of the matchless Arts of that young Politician, set in a true and just Light." He makes it pretty clear that in the controversy as to whether Pamela's motivation for marrying the cad who tried mightily to seduce her are innocent or mercenary Fielding sees as the latter.

Like PAMELA, SHAMELA is a novel (much briefer than PAMELA) written as letters. But in Fielding's hands, Shamela is seen as the master manipulator. Where Pamela faints whenever her Mr. B. grabs her, Shamela swoons too-but in coarse delight. With each passing episode, Fielding inverts the moral universe of Richardson so that when one considers Richardson's subtitle of PAMELA as "Virtue rewarded," one now sees with crystal clarity that virtue does indeed earn a reward, but the virtue of Pamela and the virtue of Shamela are alike only in their spelling. I am glad that I read PAMELA first, for if I had come across SHAMELA first, I am pretty sure that I would have hooted and guffawed at a young innocent whose only crime was to follow on stage a deadly mimic. ... Read more

Product Description
The real-life Jonathan Wild, gangland godfather and self-styled "Thieftaker General", controlled much of the London underworld until he was executed for his crimes in 1725. Even during his lifetime his achievements attracted attention; after his death balladeers sang of his exploits, and satirists made connections between his success and the triumph of corruption in high places.Fielding built on these narratives to produce one of the greatest sustained satires in the English language. Published in 1743, at a time when the modern novel had yet to establish itself as a fixed literary form, Jonathan Wild is at the same time a brilliant black comedy, an incisive political satire, and a profoundly serious exploration of human "greatness" and "goodness", as relevant today as it ever was. ... Read more

Product Description
The Second Edition of this Norton Critical Edition of Fielding’s great novel reprints the definitive fourth edition text (1749, dated 1750), "Carefully revis’d and corrected/By Henry Fielding, Esq;", the last in his lifetime.The novel is fully annotated for undergraduate readers and is accompanied by a Textual Appendix and a map depicting Tom’s route to London.

As in the previous edition, "Contemporary Reactions" by such noteworthy commentators as Samuel Richardson, Samuel Johnson, and the Hill sisters provide rich historical context.

"Criticism" is a collection of fourteen interpretations of the novel spanning the years 1826–1990 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Forsyth, Kenneth Rexroth, R. S. Crane, John Preston, William Empson, Wayne C. Booth, Martin Battestin, Maaja A. Stewart, Eleanor N. Hutchens, Sean Shesgreen, Frederick W. Hilles, and Sheridan Baker.

A new Chronology and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Invention of the Novel...
1: Fielding is really funny!
2: It takes about 100 pages to really get rolling.
3: He's written a more approachable book that Sam Richardson (Pamela tends to go on a bit... And Clarissa just goes on and on -- great villain though)
4: Henry created one of the great names in literature, Mr. Blifel! Say it a few times and it makes you feel grubby enough that you'll need a shower!
5. Skip the first chapter of each book during your first read, it probably won't be on the test and it's always just Henry's latest blog on his most recent rant.

Jane Austen liked the book, although she seems to have preferred Richardson -- I suspect Sam wrote the first Chick lit while Henry wrote guy noir, so 'of course' Jane would prefer Sam's stuff -- or does she! (add scary Shadow type laugh here...).

You see, before Jane A (except, maybe, for Daniel Defoe [of Moll Flanders fame]), most novels (well, English novels, anyway) used the exchange of letters as the method of progressing the story. The entire novel would be in the form of letters and journals by the varioius protagonists (Bram Stoker used this in Dracula). Fielding utterly drops this conceit and sticks with straight narrative. And he seems to have been completely aware of how extreme this was for his time. Ms Austen made the same decision. So, you see, she may indeed have been more intrigued by the 'bad boy,' Henry Fielding, than we have believed. But let's let the English majors sort all this out. OK?

Oh, one last thing: If you want a bit more blood and thunder in your literature you might try one by Mrs. Ann Radcliffe (I liked The Mysteries of Udolpho); and if you REALLY want some truly serious goth try The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis. The Monk also has the advantage of being a frequently banned book and it's always good to support whatever "they" don't like, aye?

Greatest work of English Literature after Shakespeare
I love Jane Austen, but like most English novelists she was only writing about a very small slice of English society. The same can be said for most other great English novelists.Fielding's acheivement stands in utter contrast- In Tom Jones we see full blooded characters from across the entire spectrum of English society- in all of their full blooded vanity, goodness, ugliness, courage, cowardice wisdom and foolishness mixed together.This is England before the Victorians spoiled it. And the wonderful story told with such humor, irony and wit. The observations range from dry wit to bawdy burlesque - the product of a man who had lived the fullest possible life and is now determined to share all of it with his reader. This is absolutely one of my favorite books. You will love it too.

The Earliest Is Still the Best
Although Tom Jones is one of the first English novels, it remains my all time favorite, which is saying a lot since I majored in English and have read too many pieces of fiction to count.It is the only novel I have read more than 2 times. The plot is quite inventive, the characters vivid and the romp through 18th Century England engaging. The style of writing may take awhile to get used to for a modern reader, but perserverence will pay off. Enjoy!!

Best Novel ever written?
How do you write a review on what may be the best novel ever written. Charming and wonderfuly written and still hold up almost 300 years later. Funny, thought provoking as Fielding shines light on morale hypocrisy. I did not want this book to end, can there be a better commentary on a book then that? ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.Amazon.com Review
Tom Jones isn't a bad guy, but boys just want to havefun. Nearly two and a half centuries after its publication, theadventures of the rambunctious and randy Tom Jones still makes forgreat reading. I'm not in the habit of using words like bawdy orrollicking, but if you look them up in the dictionary, you should seea picture of this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

Modern Literature from the 18th Century
My question is, how is one to encounter an early novel like "Tom Jones"?When Fielding wrote it, there wasn't much in the way of standards for prose fiction of its kind; in fact, one of the fun things about this piece is watching Fielding make up the rules as he goes along.But does this mean that when you're reading "Tom Jones" and you come across an authorial interruption or a scene that doesn't add anything to the plot, or anything else that would be a flaw in a modern piece, you scold Fielding for it?Back then, no one ever said that novels shouldn't include such things - no one had had time to say much about novels in English at all, since people hadn't been writing them for very long.On the other hand, such things do trouble the modern reader, so you have to say something, don't you?

All right, then, here's one of the problems with "Tom Jones" - although the narrator keeps referring to it as a "history" and declares repeatedly that he's simply reporting the facts, he makes it plain at the same time that it's a work of fiction.Each "book" starts off with a chapter of introductory philosophy of some type, on subjects like what a critic should say about a book like this and what he should not say, and even the purpose of prefaces like the one you're reading, all of which takes you right out of the story of Tom and his adventures.If a student turned in something like this in a creative writing class, it would come back with red ink all over it.

Which only goes to show how ridiculous it is to impose rules on fiction, or on anything creative.They usually work, but they're there to make things readable, not to be obeyed.As it turns out, there are dozens or maybe hundreds of novels published in the last forty years that do exactly what "Tom Jones" does.Critics call this technique "metafiction" and praise to the skies.The only thing Henry Fielding did wrong was to produce metafiction, along with some of his contemporaries, about two hundred years early.

In all fairness, part of the reason "Tom Jones" has survived for this long is that most critics and most readers are not so foolish as to blame the novel for premature metafictionality.On the contrary, as I said, that's part of what makes the book so much fun.It's also a pretty good story even without all the authorial side-comments.The title character first comes on the scene as an illegitimate infant in the bed of a country squire named Allworthy.He grows up into a splendid, though often headstrong and hasty, young man, but a fair number of his neighbors spurn him because of the circumstances of his birth.Various enemies conspire to place him in a bad light with his adoptive father, Squire Allworthy, and although he's head-over-heels in love with his neighbor's daughter Sophie, he must leave his home and seek his destiny in the wide world.Sophie, too, who is head-over-heels in love with young Mr. Jones, also leaves home in haste to avoid a disastrous match that her father insists upon.How many people think Tom and Sophie will meet up on the road?Okay, put your hands down.

Now, part of the reason "Tom Jones" remains popular is that the author himself emerges from his fiction as a very likeable man, whether he was that likeable in real life or not - I don't know, myself.Regardless of Fielding's personal manner, he set up a story in which a group of characters of genuine virtue find themselves in deep and profound conflict with a group of characters who pretend to genuine virtue.Squire Allworthy himself, late in the story, labels these two sorts of character flaws "imprudence" and "villainy", and it's pretty clear which side Fielding supports.And we all like to think of our flaws as being sort of accidental to our basic good nature, like Tom's, so it's nice that our narrator here can see beyond polished surfaces to the genuine virtue or evil underneath.

That's especially nice when you see how frequently Tom and his allies run afoul of people who lie, or at any rate distort the truth, to make themselves look good by comparison.Indeed, Tom never gets into trouble except for one of two reasons - either someone reveals something about Tom to someone who shouldn't know it, or someone misrepresents Tom's actions to someone who should know better.At one point, for instance, Squire Allworthy recovers from a serious illness, and Tom is so delighted he gets terrifically drunk and has a big fight with a prudish member of the household, but when this is reported to the squire, said prude only mentions the drunkenness, not the reason.Unlike Tom, who always gives everyone else's sins the benefit of the doubt, this prude always twists everything to his own advantage while maintaining the appearance of sober piety.He's so good at this that for quite a while, everyone thinks he's the hero.Grumble grumble.It's enough to make you keep reading just to see if this jerk gets what's coming to him.

In short, as Fielding himself says in a few different places, "Tom Jones" is a far more effective sermon than the author's contemporaries might have heard in a month of Sundays, partly because the narrator sees into the hearts of his characters without regard for the surface, and partly because he preaches to you while telling a good story.That's a pretty good description of the sort of God we'd all like to believe in, actually.And Fielding isn't God, but it sounds like he learned some good lessons from divine nature.

Benshlomo says, Literary games have been around a lot longer than you thought, thank goodness.

It may be satiric, but it sure was a snoozer ...
I did not enjoy reading this book. I love books. I love literature. I love to read. Tom Jones, I did not enjoy. There was simply too much. I am quite certain Fielding was smart. I am sure he wasa good writer. However, no one should have to wade through almost 800 pages of a person's life. Before reading this book, please prepare yourself for a long, sometimes dull, journey.

Get the Wesleyan edition!
Tom Jones is a great book by one of the greatest of English prose stylists, but to enjoy it to the max you should read the Wesleyan University Press edition of this as well as of Fielding's other novels. The Wesleyan Press edition has a well edited text along with extensive notes to explain Fielding's sometimes cryptic allusions.The Wesleyan edition is definitely the best.

see the movie; read the book
I recently saw the lively 1960s movie "Tom Jones" and was moved to read an imposing book.I was not disappointed.I took my sweet time reading this delicious novel.I agree with nearly all the good comments that have already been made here, and will add just a few more.I most enjoyed getting a flavor of life in mid-eighteenth century England not warped through the lens of a historian or historical fiction.These were interesting times!I've been attending a few contemporary Handel operas; this book was a nice complement.The classics (language, history, etc.) were over-arching during this baroque era, and moderation and rationality are the virtues to nurture.Fielding appreciates this, and weaves a fine comic story into a novel at a time when few novels existed.He was working without a net, and pulled it off with panache.

A desert for the mind, but not a main course
To read or not to read; that is the question.Whenever I want to buy something I try to get some objective opinions about the product beforehand. Thus when I decided to write reviews of the books I read and post them on the Amazon website, I chose to write in such a fashion so that I would help potential buyers of the book make up their minds--rather than writing a review based solely on my perception of the merits of the book.

There is a delightful scene in the movie version of Tom Jones where food is eaten and abused in abundance. With food as a metaphor, I would describe Henry Fielding's classical comic novel by that name as desert. It is very tasty and enjoyable, but hardly proper nutrition for the intellect.By this I mean that the novel does not provide the kind of intellectual stimulation and growth that one finds in the greatest works--Don Quixote, Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Crime and Punishment, the list is quite long. These are the truly great works of literature that everyone should read. By contrast, Tom Jones is a fun book, but lacking in the kind of insights that make for a great (5 star) book. Forced to choose, I give it 4 stars, but could just as easily give it 3.

Certainly there are insights into human nature in the novel, but do you really need to be told that human beings can be crude, selfish, money hungry, rapacious and sometimes even kind and generous??And do you need to read 700 plus pages to find this out? The plot is simple and obvious. A kindly country squire, Thomas Allworthy, finds a baby in his bed and decides to raise it himself. The boy, named Tom Jones, is a handsome devil but a decent person. Predictably, he falls in love with the highborn daughter of a neighboring squire, Mr. Western. Sophia returns his love, but circumstances, mainly related to the differing status of the two young people, prevent their marriage. Tom is run off for a seemingly transgression and has a series of comical and tragic adventures involving a host of characters ensues and everything works out in the end.

One difficulty in reading the book is the numerous obscure literary references. Granted there are footnotes in the back of the book (400 plus!), but it is irritating to have to keep flipping pages to understand what is being said or happening. Some of this, such as having Mr. Partridge spout Latin every few pages, is unnecessary. Fielding divides the novel into 18 "books" and begins each one with a chapter in which he discourses on something or other unrelated to the story. One is tempted to say, "Shut up Henry and just tell the story!"Fielding also intrudes into the story itself quite often to speak directly to the reader, a style I find to be more irritating than helpful. There is also a lot of British history thrown in that does not really contribute much to the main story, as well as a lot of short interludes (Tom and the gypsies, Tom and the highwayman, Tom and the Man of the Hill, etc.) that do not really add much to the story although they do reveal something about English life at that time. The latter part of the book descends into a kind of Desperate Housewives mentality with Lady Balaston, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, Miss Western, and even another love interest for Jones, Anabella Hunt, vying for attention with a similar contingent of males. Also much of the humor is visual (the bluster of Squire Western, the antics of Partridge), rather than a result of the interplay among the characters, thus making the film far funnier than the book.In the end the book is just too long.

Still, Tom Jones is enjoyable reading if you have the time for it, but it is not, in my view, a must read great work of literature.




... Read more

Product Description
"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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Delightful classics for period readers
Shamela, especially, is not frequently read except by those who go into the century in depth. Yet, it is a wonderful book full of subversive and subtle nuance.

Joseph Andrews is a picaresque/humorous eighteenth century novel which will delight the reader
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was a man of the world. Though Fielding became a jurist in the last years of his short life he knew the corrupt, sexy and violent England of the reign of George II. In "Joseph Andrews" and his later, longer novel "Tom Jones" we join a hero on a romp through merry olde England!
Joseph Andrews is the reputed brother of Pamela Andrews being employed as a footman in the home of Lady Booby the widow of Sir Booby (the names are hilarious in this novel-for instance there is "Peter Pounce"!)When Lady Booby dismisses him after her failed seduction of the innocent lad he is forced to leave her employ.
Joseph is befriended by the poor curate Abraham Adams who is going to London to sell a book of his sermons. Adams is a Sancho Panza figure who has six children and a wife back at home. He is involved in countless battles, misunderstandings and hilarious situations in inns and before judges! Adams is like an innocent Adam prior to the Fall of Man. He is a good old soul who seeks to help Joseph and the latter's illiterate love
Fanny Goodwill.
All comes out well in the end as Joseph and Fanny are wed and we learn the history of their infancy. We learn many surprises about them which I won't share with anyone who is reading this review prior to perusing the novel for the first time!
Fielding is adept at humor, sexual situations and violent Keystone Kops varieties of mock battles! He was a fan of Cervantes and Andrews resembles an English Don Quioxote. Fielding enjoyed being the omniscent narrator often interjecting his thoughts on everything from marriage, the British social structure, warfare, human nature and the joys of true love.
Fielding's novel is a comment on Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" epistlatory novel of 1740 in which the pious servant Pamela writes home to her parents about her abduction, rape and eventual marriage to a Lord B. Fielding thought the virtuous Pamela to be a bit sickening and so satirized that lady in his "Shamela" and Joseph Andrews.
Joseph is the supposed brother of Pamela who appears in the Fielding novel. What did Richardson think of this "stealing" by Fielding of his famous heroine?
The characters are typecast showing no growth or development as would be the case in later novels. Dickens was greatly influenced by Fielding
whose careful descriptions of characters was a lesson well learned bythe great Victorian writer.
Joseph Andrews will take the reader back to the days of English inns and ale houses, rural roads and great country estates. It says much to our age about human nature which never changes.
Henry Fielding is a great early English novelist and his Joseph Andrews will always remain as a classic of the novelist's difficult art

One of the funniest books I've ever read!
This fast-paced comic novel was written as a parody of another 18th century classic, the immensely popular Pamela. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded,was a best selling novel by Fielding's comtemporary, Samuel Richardson. (Please see my other reviews for more about this). Although the language andsocial customs have changed in the 200 plus years since this book was written, there is enough universality to the comedy that modern readers won't mind missing a few of the jokes.

Although having read Pamela first will help you get some of the inside humor, Joseph Andrews can be read on its own as well. Fielding uses Richardson's more serious morality tale as a jumping-off point for a pretended sequel, in which Pamela has a brother who encounters many of the same situations as his more famous sister. While Pamela was pursued by an amorous and unscrupulous landowner, Joseph is chased by lecherous females who can't believe that he is serious about saving himself for marriage to his childhood sweetheart. The humor comes from the gender reversal, and from Fielding's no-holds-barred spoof of the manners (and lack thereof) of the fashionable upper classes. Joseph is a clear-headed, intelligent young man of the servant class, whose social superiors just can't stop being ridiculous at every opportunity.I won't go into plot details-they are mostly of the standard farce variety anyway. But the scenes and dialog are often so hilarious that it doesn't matter what the pretext is, you just have to suspend all critical judgement and laugh.

P.S. Shamela is included in this edition. It's a shorter spoof of Pamela, written as a bawdy series of letters in which the supposedly chaste and innocent heroine reveals her darker side. Not on a par with Joseph Andrews, but still pretty funny.

Joseph Andrews--Like Kerouac--Goes On The Road
When readers come to JOSEPH ANDREWS--at least outside of a class on the 18th century novel, they usually have heard that this novel by Henry Fielding is funny, sort of an early Keruoac's On The Road. And while it is funny--a closer analogy might be to Hope and Crosby's On the Road films--its less obvious humor lies in its sharp satire, an understanding of which requires a bit of understanding how to place this book in its proper historical and cultural milieu.

To begin with, Fielding wrote JOSEPH ANDREWS when novel writing was still very nearly a brand new genre. The only models he had were from classical antiquity and a few more recent innovators like Swift and Samuel Richardson. Fielding felt that his efforts were so new that he had to justify them, which he did in the often overlooked and unread "Preface" to the book. Reading this preface sheds some much needed light on the genesis of his novel. Fielding notes here that he wrote JOSEPH ANDREWS according to what he saw as the models first used by the classic ancient poetry writers. They wrote mostly poems and epic poems. What Fielding was writing was a genre unknown to them: prose fiction. Fielding thus tries to draw an analogy between what he was writing and what these ancients had written: "Now, a comic romance is a comic epic-poem in prose." Since Fielding clearly saw JOSEPH ANDREWS as a comic romance, it made sense to him that he should follow the strict unities of time and place that the ancients followed in their epic poems. But one often overlooked irony is that this stern self-reminder from his own preface he then abandoned wildly, often, and at the drop of a hat. Thus, for his contemporary audience who had more than a passing acquaintance with classical training, Fielding gets his JOSEPH ANDREWS off with a satirical bang.

The book's plot itself defies explanation. It involves lost heirs, children stolen at birth, secret birthmarks, beatings that somehow leave no bruises: and all these occur fairly early on. The events are so convoluted and over the top that it is difficult to read them or remember them in their listed sequence. Yet, Fielding had good reason to believe that these wildly unbelievable events were precisely what his audiences wanted, since both Swift and Pope were still living and their respective satires much read and appreciated. Fielding chose to write on the book's title page that JOSEPH ANDREWS was "written in imitation of the manner of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote." With that subtle hint, Fielding feels free to allow his hero to go off tilting at every object in his path but windmills. This tilting results in the kind of slapstick humor that most readers mean when they talk about how "funny" the book is. Yet, Fielding knew that humor could and should have a more serious aspect, which he saw as sober satire. For him, as for Swift, satire meant holding society up to a crooked mirror--sort of the kind that one sees at fun houses--and exposing by crooked exaggeration the misdeeds of that society. This concept of sober satire is hinted at in the person of Parson Adams, who also figures prominently right there on the title page with that little note about Cervantes. Parson Adams is Don Quixote reborn. He does ridiculous things for which the reader rightfully laughs at for that. Yet, Parson Adams has a more reflective side too. Though he is betrayed, he forgives. Though he is injured, he holds on to his innocence. And though he is hurt, he laughs. Compare his actions to the half dozen other parsons and what emerges is that these other parsons are licentuous, venal, and downright corrupt. Fielding was concerned with the same worry of every writer from Chaucer to himself: what can the ordinary man hope for when his supposed exemplars of virtue--the clergy--are unvirtuous? Well, in the satirical world of JOSEPH ANDREWS there was a little bit of an otherwise evil world that was evil free. When Fielding's readers laughed at the foibles of Andrews and Adams, their laughter was tempered by the realization that their funny universe was only a hairsbreath away from one was that tragic too.

Great Classic Humorous Novel
My sense of humor might be a bit off from the norm (my kids' opinion) so you may not find this mid-eighteenth century novel as funny as I do. I think it's just about the funniest book I've ever read. Not only is it funny but Fielding points a sharply satirical finger at just about everyone living in England at the time. One of the things that I love about the older books is their insight into history: though it's an obvious satire (much like the work of Cervantes) there's so much history here. Yet you see yourself and your neighbors here as well. We're still surrounded by people who are petty, pompous, flirtatious, morose - what have you - while we remain paragons of virtue. In a sense this is Joseph's problem: he's a good kid trying to make it in a crazy world (still a modern story). He's simple and kind and believes others around him to be the same. He's continually amazed when they prove otherwise. Really a good book. ... Read more

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Tom Jones isn't a bad guy, but boys just want to have fun. Nearly two and a half centuries after its publication, the adventures of the rambunctious and randy Tom Jones still makes for great reading. I'm not in the habit of using words like bawdy or rollicking, but if you look them up in the dictionary, you should see a picture of this book. Formatted for the Amazon Kindle. ... Read more

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Indulge Yourself with the best classic literature on Your PDA. Navigate easily to any novel from Table of Contents or search for the words or phrases.

Customer Reviews (1)

Works of Henry Fielding
Works of Henry Fielding. Tom Jones, Amelia, Joseph Andrews, Pasquin play, Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon and others. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

Henry Fielding's observations about humans and society hold true - his books could have been written yesterday. Henry Fielding is a great 'host' and companion. He has a truly hilarious writer's voice, alternating different literary tones to describe characters and events for maximum comic effect. He shamelessly digresses about whatever subject he feels like. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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What a wolf is in a sheepfold, a great man is in society
For Henry Fielding, 'great men', like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and 'great rogues', like Jonathan Wild, are synonymous terms. Greatness consists in bringing all manners of mischief on mankind.
Alexander the Great overran a whole empire with fire and sword, pillaging, sacking, burning, enslaving and destroying millions of his fellow creatures. Julius Caesar abolished the republican liberties of his country in order to take the power into his own hands.
At the opposite side of the spectrum, Jonathan Wild was a great prig (pick-pocket), cheating the very tools who were his instruments to cheat others: 'I had rather stand at the summit of a dunghill, than at the bottom of a hill in paradise.'

For Henry Fielding, greatness rimes with ambition, lust, avarice, rapaciousness, hypocrisy, power, pride, insolence, insatiability, 'a privilege to kill, a strong temptation to do bravely ill'. Greatness is 'playing with the passions of men, to work one's own purposes out of the jealousies and apprehensions to create those great arts which the vulgar call treachery, dissembling, promising, lying, falshood, summed up in the collective name of POLLITRICKS.'
And all that for what? Not for the general good of society, but for the power and the glory of the great man himself, for the satisfaction of his vices.
The fact that 'he is hated and detested by all mankind makes him inwardly satisfied. Otherwise, why should he stand at the head of a multitude of prigs, called an army, in order to molest his neighbours, to introduce rape, rapine, bloodshed and every kind of misery on his own species, to desire maliciously to rob those subjects, to reduce them to an absolute dependence on his own will, to betray the interest of his fellow-subjects, of his brethren.'
Jonathan Wild: 'I ought rather weep with Alexander, that I have ruined not more.'

Another target of the author are the hypocritical priests: 'Life is sweet, I had rather live to eternity ... so many wallow in wealth and preferment.'
He insults the ordinary, who attends to the spiritual needs of condemned criminals; 'You are more unmerciful to me than the Judge.'

Henry Fielding's forceful diatribe against all conquerers, tyrants, pollitrickers, and vicious 'prigs' still sounds extremely modern.
He blames the majority of mankind to continue to praise the said great men.
But, 'there are still some, who view these great men with a malignant eye and dare affirm that these great men are always the most pernicious and generally the most wretched and truly contemptible of all works of creation.'

This book is a ferocious and, unfortunately, still very topical satire.
A must read. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. This book features the table of contents linked to every book and chapter. The book was designed for optimal navigation on the Kindle, PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including the Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.

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Tom Jones (ebook)
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

A novel that can be in turns hilarious, disturbing, and provoking, "Tom Jones" is never dull. Despite its size, the pace of the novel is extremely fast and lively. For anyone who appreciates wit and history, this is a must read. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:" Oh, the villains !" cries Mrs. Atkinson, " what a stratagem was here to take away your husband !""Take away!" answered the child. "What! hath anybody taken away papa ? Sure that naughty fibbing man hath not taken away papa ?"Amelia begged Mrs. Atkinson to say something to her children, for that her spirits were overpowered. She then threw herself into a chair, and gave a full vent to a passion almost too strong for her delicate constitution.The scene that followed, during some minutes, is beyond my power of description ; I must beg the readers' hearts to suggest it to themselves. The children hung on their mother, whom they endeavored in vain to comfort, as Mrs. Atkinson did in vain attempt to pacify them, telling them all would be well, and they would soon see their papa again.At length, partly by the persuasions of Mrs. Atkinson, partly from consideration of her little ones, and more, perhaps, from the relief which she had acquired by her tears, Amelia became a little composed.Nothing worth notice passed in this miserable company from this time till the return of Mrs. Ellison from the bailiffs house ; and to draw out scenes of wretchedness to too great a length is a task very uneasy to the writer, and for which none but readers of a most gloomy complexion will think themselves ever obliged to his labors.At length Mrs. Ellison arrived, and entered the room with an air of gayety rather misbecoming the occasion. When she had seated herself in a chair she told Amelia that the captain was very well and in good spirits, and that he earnestly desired her to keep up hers. " Come, madam," said she, " don't be disconsolate ; I hope we shall soon be able to get him out of his troubles. The debts, indeed, amount to more than I expected ; however, ways may be found ... ... Read more

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Amelia (Complete)
The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great
The History of Tom Jones, a foundling
Joseph Andrews Vol. 1
Joseph Andrews, Vol. 2
Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon
From This World to the Next
... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Tom, a foundling, is discovered one evening by the benevolent Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget and brought up as a son in their household; when his sexual escapades and general misbehavior lead them to banish him, he sets out in search of both his fortune and his true identity. Amorous, high-spirited, and filled with what Fielding called “the glorious lust of doing good,” but with a tendency toward dissolution, Tom Jones is one of the first characters in English fiction whose human virtues and vices are realistically depicted. This edition is set from the text of the Wesleyan Edition of the Works of Henry Fielding. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Suprisingly Good Read
I had to purchase this book for a class but I am surprised by how readable it is even today. It is still as accurate about human nature today as it was in the 18th century. I highly recommend this book.

short attention span theatre
I remember really liking "Joseph Andrews", another famous novel by this author.I remember it being funny. I just couldn't get into this one.It takes a while to get going.The basic plot is that Tom is a foundling, in love with a wealthier girl, but Tom is forced to leave his home.After many complications, including Tom's somewhat "innocent" infidelities, you can guess what happens. It's sort of a male version of a Jane Austen novel, with more travel involved, and more comedy.Maybe my attention span is shrinking.

A Wonderful Adventure
This novel is worth it for the following lines spoken by Parson Thwackum:

"When I mention religion," said the parson, "I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England. And when I mention honour, I mean that mode of divine grace which is not only consistent with but dependent upon this religion, and is consistent and dependent upon no other" (p. 105).

Very amusing, but think of the centuries when men like that had supreme political power--then to laugh, to doubt meant to be burned alive.Michael Servetus (1511-1553) was burned alive by John Calvin for doubting the Holy Trinity and preaching Unitarianism.Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burned for similar heresies.

There is no end to the evil that men like Parson Thwackum would do if they had power. We must stand forever on guard against such views of religion.

Great (!!!!) Book
This is a great read, though not one for the feint of heart (or the feint of attention span). The plot is slow to get moving, and there are long detours that a pragmatic reader might find frustrating. But, once the plot gets going, it is truly a masterpiece. My first time through Tom Jones, I stayed up all night to read the last couple hundred pages, because I literally couldn't put it down. ... Read more

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This Norton Critical Edition reprints the authoritative Wesleyan textof Joseph Andrews, edited by Martin Battestin.An accurate text of Shamela (Fielding’s satire of Samuel Richardson’sPamela, the most popular epistolary novel of the eighteenth century) aswell as An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men, selectionsfrom The Champion, and the Preface to The Adventures of David Simpleare also included.  All of the texts are fully annotated.

"Backgrounds" contains generous extracts from works that Fieldingsatirized—Pamela and Conyer Middleton’s Dedication to the Life ofCicero—and emulated—Gil Blas and selections from Don Quixote, the RomanComique, and Le Paysan Parvenu.  The section concludes with a generalexplanation of the political and religious contexts in which JosephAndrews was written.

"Criticism" offers a broad range of responses to the novel. Contemporary assessments include selected letters of Thomas Gray,William Shenstone, Samuel Richardson, and others as well as commentaryfrom The Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany, byWilliam Hazlitt, James Beattie, and Sarah Fielding and Jane Collier.

Modern assessments are by Mark Spilka, Dick Taylor, Jr., MartinBattestin, Sheldon Sacks, Morris Golden, Brian McCrea, and HomerGoldberg.

A Selected Bibliography is also included.
... Read more

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English Lit
I had to read this book for a college fiction class. I thought it wouldnt get any worse then this. However to my surprise this book was quite enjoyable in a classical kind of way! My professor said that this is supposed to be one of the first novels ever written and I was surprised that it had all the basics of a great modern read. Love,Sex,and Betrayel.

If you have to read this book dont be discourgaged its not all that bad. (smile) ... Read more

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For Henry Fielding, 'storytelling', whether in the form of a play, essay or novel, was a means of transmuting the dross of his own experiences. In this important new critical biography, Ronald Paulson brilliantly demonstrates how Fielding's life and writings evolved according to his experiments with different professions. It is not sufficient to say that he moved from one literary genre to the next, from drama to essay, from satire to novel. As a playwright and theater manager he thematized the theater and its workings in his writings, moving on to do the same as a journalist, barrister, and finally magistrate. Tom Jones, for example, can be interpreted as a self-projection, seen from the perspective of a barrister, an advocate for the defense; or Billy Booth as a conflation of the author and his father, seen now from the perspective of a grim but just magistrate. Each chapter in this intriguing book begins with an annotated chronology of the known facts, followed by analyses of the important issues.Paulson's account will be essential reading for all admirers of Fielding as well as serious students of his work. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more