Tom Jones: FULLY ANNOTATED EDITION (OVER 750 NOTES)

by Henry Fielding

Overview

Abandoned as an infant and of unknown parentage, Tom Jones is raised in the household of the irreproachable, altruistic Squire Allworthy. Growing up to be a high-spirited, lusty youth, Tom finds himself vulnerable to temptation in the form of a local wench, though his heart is ultimately claimed by the beautiful Sophia Western, the daughter of a neighbouring landowner. When Tom's amorous misadventures compel the squire to expel his young charge from his home, and when Sophia flees from her domineering and boisterous father to avoid an undesired union with the odious Master Blifil, a colourful, picaresque journey through eighteenthcentury England ensues, one punctuated by a parade of unforgettable Hogarthian grotesques and timeless comic set pieces.


Characterized by both razor-sharp wit and broad, racy humour, and described by Coleridge as boasting one of the “three most perfect plots ever planned”, Tom Jones was an instant hit on its publication in 1749, and is widely considered one of the greatest works of English literature and a foundation stone in the development of the novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847499059
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/21/2024
Series:	Alma Classics Evergreens
Pages:	864
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.75(h) x 2.15(d)

About the Author

One of the progenitors of the English novel, Henry Fielding (1707–54) is remembered today for the bawdy picaresque Tom Jones and other works such as the comic novel Joseph Andrews and his travelogue Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER I
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Tom Jones"
by .
Copyright © 2002 Henry Fielding.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

George Sherburn

Not the serious moral intention of the author, nor even the superb fusion of all elements, can fully account for the pleasure intelligent readers have found for two hundred years in reading Tom Jones. One must recognize as a supreme aid to the success of the book the fact that it is composed with confident directness and precision, and especially that it is written in healthy high spirits—that Fielding keenly enjoyed writing it.

Edward Gibbon

The successors of Charles the Fifth may disdain their brethren of England; but the romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial eagle of the house of Austria.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Upon my word, I think Tom Jones is one of the most perfect plots ever planned.

Editorial Reviews

Two hundred years have not dimmed Fielding’s realism. His humor is closer to our own than that of any writer before the present century.”—Kingsley Amis

From the Publisher