Classic
Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding
Summary
Foundling Tom Jones grows up in a country household, falls for his neighbor Sophia Western, and is cast out after a string of scandals engineered by rivals and his own recklessness. Fielding narrates the sprawling plot with a knowing, comic voice that steps back to comment on the art of novel writing itself. The book's structure, mixing farce, romance, and social panorama, became a model for the comic novel in English.
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Historical Context & Significance
Fielding published the novel in 1749, drawing on his experience as a magistrate and playwright to give its world of inns, highways, and drawing rooms real texture. Critics still point to it as one of the first great achievements of English comic fiction.