Tom Jones

by Henry Fielding, John Bender (Editor), Simon Stern (Editor), John Bender (Introduction)

Overview

Tom Jones (1749) is rightly regarded as Fielding's greatest work, and one of the first and most influential of English novels. At the center of one of the most ingenious plots in English fiction stands a hero whose actions were, in 1749, as shocking as they are funny today. This carefully modernized edition is based on Fielding's emended fourth edition text and offers the most thorough Notes, Maps, and Bibliography.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199536993
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2008
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Pages:	976
Sales rank:	659,585
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Dubbed "the father of the English novel" by Sir Walter Scott, Henry Fielding (1707–54) was educated at Eton and worked as a barrister, although writing was his true vocation. In 1741 he published Shamela, a parody of Samuel Richardson's sentimental and moralistic Pamela, followed a year later by Joseph Andrews. In 1749 he produced Tom Jones, his comic masterpiece and an incomparably vivid portrait of English society during the mid-18th century.

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CHAPTER I
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Tom Jones"
by .
Copyright © 2002 Henry Fielding.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
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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

"With each volume having an introduction by an acknowledged expert, and exhaustive notes, the World's Classics are surely the most desirable series and, all-round, the best value for the money."—Oxford Times

From the Publisher