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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Henry Fielding (1707–1754)
Fielding, Henry. A celebrated English novelist; born at Sharpham Park, Somersetshire, April 22, 1707, of the blood of the Hapsburgs; died at Lisbon, Oct. 8, 1754. After ill success as playwright and lawyer he wrote ‘The Adventures of Joseph Andrews’ (1742), to burlesque Richardson’s ‘Pamela’; it grew in his hands into a strong novel of a new type, and his career and fame were determined. His masterpiece is ‘Tom Jones; or the History of a Foundling’ (1749). His last novel, ‘Amelia’ (1752), is characteristic of his sentiments rather than of his genius. ‘The History of Jonathan Wild’ is a piece of irony directed against the professors of conventional morality. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).