Amelia

by Henry Fielding

Overview

According to the Introduction: "Fielding's third great novel has been the subject of much more discordant judgments than either of its forerunners. If we take the period since its appearance as covering four generations, we find the greatest authority in the earliest, Johnson, speaking of it with something more nearly approaching to enthusiasm than he allowed himself in reference to any other work of an author, to whom he was on the whole so unjust. The greatest man of letters of the next generation, Scott (whose attitude to Fielding was rather undecided, and seems to speak a mixture of intellectual admiration and moral dislike, or at least failure in sympathy), pronounces it "on the whole
unpleasing," and regards it chiefly as a sequel to _Tom Jones_, showing what is to be expected of a libertine and thoughtless husband. But he too is enthusiastic over the heroine. Thackeray..." According to Wikipedia: "Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 ? October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. Aside from his literary achievements, he has a significant place in the history of law-enforcement, having founded what some have called London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, using his authority as a magistrate."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455303526
Publisher:	Seltzer Books
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Linda Bree is Editorial Director, Arts and Literature at the Cambridge University Press. She has published widely on eighteenth-century literature and is the editor of the Broadview Edition of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Henry Fielding: A brief Chronology
A Note on Money
A Note on the Text
Glossary

Amelia

Appendix A: From Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man: Epistle II (1733–34)

Appendix B: Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 4 (Saturday, 31 March 1750)

Appendix C: From The Covent-Garden Journal (January 1752)

1. The Covent-Garden Journal, No. 7 (25 January 1752)
2. The Covent-Garden Journal, No. 8 (28 January 1752)

Appendix D: From Sarah Fielding, The History of the Countess of Dellwyn (1759)

Selected Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Henry Fielding called Amelia his ‘favourite Child’ but the readers who loved Tom Jones, on the lookout for more jokes from this author, found the child unfunny and refused to take her in. Linda Bree’s new edition of the novel creates an important opening for fresh appraisal of this innovative and challenging work. It is generously and lucidly annotated, with a discriminating introduction taking balanced account both of the historical context and most recent critical discourse. A superb addition to our resources for the study of the early modern novel as well as of Fielding.” — Thomas Lockwood, University of Washington

“Amelia, Fielding’s last and in some ways greatest novel, gives us marriage as epic adventure, fraught with perils and blessed with pleasures, and Linda Bree thankfully gives us a new and authoritative edition. The text is well edited and annotated, Bree’s introduction superb, and the maps, glossary, and appendices all very useful.” — Adam Potkay, William R. Kenan Professor of Humanities, The College of William & Mary

From the Publisher