Henry Fielding

This concise and lucid study provides an ideal introduction to the major work of Henry Fielding for all students.

This concise and lucid study provides an ideal introduction to the major work of Henry Fielding for all students. Fielding''s stature as a great comic novelist is assured, but as Professor Varey illustrates, he was a remarkably versatile writer. In his day Fielding was one of England''s leading dramatists and also pursued a career in law. He founded, edited, and contributed essays for four different periodicals, and wrote a political-satirical novel Jonathan Wild, in addition to a work of powerful social protest Amelia and his two outstanding contributions to the development of English prose fiction: Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews. Professor Varey clarifies and explains this varied body of writing, concentrating on Fielding''s technique of combining opposites or apparently ill-matched elements - of language, character, narrative made, and even philosophical thought.