The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Penguin Classics)
Inspiration for the PBS Masterpiece series Tom Jones starring Hannah Waddingham
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 neighboring squire—though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. 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.
• Includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, notes, glossary, and an appendix of Fielding's revisions
• Introduction discusses narrative techniques and themes, the context of eighteenth-century fiction and satire, and the historical and political background of the Jacobite revolution
For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With nearly 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as quality translations by award-winning translators.
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 neighboring squire—though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. 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.
• Includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading, notes, glossary, and an appendix of Fielding's revisions
• Introduction discusses narrative techniques and themes, the context of eighteenth-century fiction and satire, and the historical and political background of the Jacobite revolution
For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With nearly 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as quality translations by award-winning translators.
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Community Reviews
The book should have been called The History of Writing, a Foundling. Henry Fielding's interjections concerning writing as an art form, it's critique, it's reading throughout provide great education on the proper writing style and all this is added in such a way as to feel a natural portion of the novel's plot despite the clear break between each book. It was one of the most complete stories ever written, and it possessed of action and drama in each chapter. But nothing will quite stand out in my mind as that of Molly Seagrim defending herself in the cemetery with a skull and thigh bone against the hordes (all neatly cataloged) in clear Homeric language. This is s gem, that should be read and discussed in high school classes when children are still young and innocent enough to enjoy such humor and ribald wit, but before their minds and opinions have become too stark concerning what is right and what is wrong in the world as Fielding clearly elucidates "the grey."
If I was looking for a modern relationship, I would not need to look too far. I believe the cable series on Showtime called, Shameless, is based on the same principle of the grey as Tom Jones. The main family shares in the misfortune of attempting to survive (often doing things outside of socially accepted levels of criminality) but when compared to that of the system, the society, and others who should actually know better, their intentions appear much ennobled compared to the villainy of those around them. In fact, in matters of villainy, they appear almost naive. Tom Jones displays that naivete in 1749 with much more humor, more action, and more love than our modern day counterparts.
If I was looking for a modern relationship, I would not need to look too far. I believe the cable series on Showtime called, Shameless, is based on the same principle of the grey as Tom Jones. The main family shares in the misfortune of attempting to survive (often doing things outside of socially accepted levels of criminality) but when compared to that of the system, the society, and others who should actually know better, their intentions appear much ennobled compared to the villainy of those around them. In fact, in matters of villainy, they appear almost naive. Tom Jones displays that naivete in 1749 with much more humor, more action, and more love than our modern day counterparts.
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