Fielding, Henry (1707-1754), an English author, helped raise the novel to the status of high literature and shaped the novel as a literary form. Fielding was the first novelist to merge comedy with satire and morality and to create a panoramic and realistic view of society. Fielding satirized corruption ruthlessly, but he was a conservative who saw traditional social and moral institutions as sound with no need of uprooting.
His life.
Fielding was born on April 22, 1707, near Glastonbury in Somerset. He studied at Eton College and at the University of Leyden in Holland. Settling in London, Fielding became the most popular playwright of his day. In the 1730’s, he wrote about 20 satires and comic revues, notably The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1731). Many of his plays ridiculed the corrupt government of Prime Minister Robert Walpole. One of these, The Historical Register for the Year 1736 (1737), helped inspire the Licensing Act of 1737, a censorship law that ended Fielding’s playwriting career.
Fielding then studied law, but finding it difficult to support himself as a lawyer, he worked as an essayist and an editor of several journals. He also began writing novels during this period. In the late 1740’s, Fielding served as a judge in London. He worked hard to fight crime, founding the Bow Street Runners, who became the model for the London police force (see Police (History)). Fielding suffered from poor health and sought a milder climate. On a trip to Portugal, he wrote his last book, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (published in 1755, after his death). He died near Lisbon on Oct. 8, 1754.
His novels.
Fielding is most remembered for his three major novels, Joseph Andrews (1742), Tom Jones (1749), and Amelia (1751). To them he brought all his training in classical literature, playwriting, the law, and journalism. He enlivened these elements with his comic temperament sharpened by a satiric and ethical aim.
In his novels, Fielding used elements of the classical epic. These elements include unified plots, eloquent language, episodes of love and adventure, a wide range of action, and firm narrative control. He also used conventions of the epic to satirize character types. For example, by presenting lowly people as heroic and trivial actions as mighty, he made fun of human shortcomings, such as hypocrisy and vanity. Fielding’s main characters all reflect two of his major themes, the importance of good will and charity.
Joseph Andrews is a parody (mock imitation) of Pamela (1740), Samuel Richardson’s popular novel about the social benefits of chastity. Fielding’s novel introduces the great comic character Parson Abraham Adams. Adams is a tangle of contradicting human qualities, but thoroughly good and hilariously funny.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Fielding’s masterpiece, contains numerous subplots with many characters and themes. The novel consists of 18 books divided into 6 in the country, 6 on the road, and 6 in London.
The main plot features a group of unforgettable characters, especially the orphan Tom Jones who pursues his true love, Sophia, and his own maturity. A symbolic journey through life, the novel reveals the traps and vices awaiting the innocent Tom—deception, sex, envy, greed, and hypocrisy. With its great variety of settings and its vivid characters, the story provides a portrait of the England of Fielding’s day. Fielding’s own voice as narrator provides a humorous and ethical tone.
Amelia, Fielding’s last novel, is technically less successful than his earlier fiction. However, its representation of the social and moral evils of London is chillingly realistic. Like Fielding’s other novels, Amelia ends happily in the golden world of rural England, with the traditional social order intact and undamaged.
Fielding wrote two other works of fiction. An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741) begins the parody of Pamela that he continued in Joseph Andrews. In The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), Fielding satirized an actual notorious London criminal and the corrupt prime minister Sir Robert Walpole. Through them, the author arrived at ironic definitions of greatness and goodness.
