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Liked It “I was expecting a stodgy old boring book because it was written in 1740, and I was put off by the archaic language, the wordiness, the difficulty of the text and the fact that Fielding begins philosophizing in the middle of the story, at least during what Iater realized are chapter introductions....” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“It's a simple "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl" set up. The characters are flawed which made them seem more human. That's the most interesting part is the amount of corruption within characters we're rooting for. The book is very dry and to be honest whole chapters can be summed up in a sentence, so there is a sense of 'get on with it' but other than that it was alright.”
Rawson wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A fantastic comic novel, I hadn't laughed so much for a long time!”
Christele wrote this review Saturday, April 21, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“read it for class. it was ok
Aaron T wrote this review Wednesday, April 11, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
”“I was expecting a stodgy old boring book because it was written in 1740, and I was put off by the archaic language, the wordiness, the difficulty of the text and the fact that Fielding begins philosophizing in the middle of the story, at least during what Iater realized are chapter introductions. Boy am I glad I stuck with it. I love the story, it is absolutely riveting. I have strong opinions about the characters and what should happen to them, an indication that you are reading a great book with a strong plot. The characters are infuriating! An indication again, that I have found a great book that pulls the reader into the story and makes him care about the characters and what happens to them. I want to see the rotten conniving ones get what's coming to them, the weak, easily manipulated ones grow a spine and the good and innocent victims character assassination be redeemed. ”
Anthea Carson wrote this review Wednesday, March 14, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Jane H said: 3 stars
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Shelf wrote this review Tuesday, January 31, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Tom Jones falls in love the beautiful Sophia - confusion, ribaldry and hilarity ensues - til all's well that end's well.
muque and shylock tomes said: 5 stars
Fielding is a master craftsman! In this book he managed to make loving into an art and embellished it with great humor. Don't we all wish we lived life with the same vigor?!”“I chose this book from a list provided by my English teacher in high school. At over 800 pages, it was by far and away the longest book I had read. I feared not being able to finish by the deadline, but it was so entertaining that I didn't have any trouble. Mom also got me to watch the movie staring Albert Finney. She told me that eating fruit was never so sexy, and boy was she right!”
Elizabeth L wrote this review Wednesday, December 28, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I still have to finish this one.”
Ariel Yssou wrote this review Friday, December 9, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Having read Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Homer's Odyssey to name two thematically related however chronologically different literary creations I should have been ready for Fielding's foundling. However, it is taking a while to warm up to Fielding's style of storytelling. What we have is an omnipresent author/narrator whose story includes many fascinating characters, one of whom is that author/narrator himself. The reader is treated to a series of nineteen books each containing several chapters the first of which in each case is an essay by the author about the story itself or just about most anything the author feels is relevant or necessary for the reader's edification.
jwhenderson wrote this review Wednesday, November 30, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
But I digress, under the influence of Fielding, from the story itself which is billed as a history of Tom Jones who, as the name suggests, is a sort of every-man, a more common version of Odysseus or Don Quixote for the eighteenth century. The history is a fiction and as such is populated by fictional characters. The characters surrounding him, from his teachers, Thwackum and Square, to the Squires, Allworthy and Western, are clearly drawn with wit and wisdom; lest I forget the women for Tom has a strong and healthy interest in them whether they are low like Molly or high like Sophia Western -- women continue to perplex Tom and enliven the plot. And Tom has a good opinion of himself as the narrator notes, "Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?" (Book IV, Ch. 4).
As I entered the concluding chapters of this lively novel I found myself looking for a word to sum up my experience. I think I have found that word -- cornucopia. The abundance of characters, stories, places, and all that goes with each of these can best be considered a cornucopia. These melded with Fielding's continual insertions through essays and commentaries begins to suggest to me why this novel is considered great - one of the first of its kind in modern literature.
I also find myself comparing the hero of this story to other literary heroes whose name adorns the title of their stories. For example, David Copperfield, Adam Bede, Pendennis, and Jude the Obscure come to mind. All of these owe at least a part of their literary heritage to Fielding's Tom. Even though there is a significant change in the psychology of the characters from David to Jude, the foundation for them all and many others is the History of Tom Jones.”
“Oh dear, I must admit defeat -- grudgingly. I find Tom Jones ponderous and unreadable, and the unrelenting stupidity of everyone in it fails to amuse me. Remind me to try again in ten years.”
Frabjous Day wrote this review Monday, November 28, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Review of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Divyang K. Chhaya wrote this review Monday, September 26, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
ISBN: 0–14–062017–6
PENGUIN BOOKS
A PENGUIN/GODFREY CAVE EDITION
First Published in 1749
Published in popular classics 1994
3579108642
Printed in England by Clays Ltd., St. Ives Plc.
Tom Jones is one of the first and finest English comic novels by Henry Fielding. “The novel appeared in 1749 to a mixture of consternation and applause.”
It is a difficult read.
The novel is divided into 18 smaller books, each preceded by a discursive chapter, often on topics totally unrelated to the book itself. Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy landowner, Squire Allworthy, in Somerset in England's West Country.
The main hero (Tom Jones) grows into a forceful and robust, yet truthful and kind - hearted, adolescence. He develops affection for his neighbour's daughter, Sophia Western.
On one hand, their love reflects the ancient British romantic comedy. But, Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love.
Criticism of societal class friction leads to a biting social commentary, which is portrayed by the author Henry Fielding in a manner that is real praiseworthy.
The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in innovative plot was also original for its time,” and was proved an underpinning for criticism of the book's "lowness.
The main hero is of mysterious origins, and is discovered abandoned one night in the bed of wealthy and benevolent Mr. Allworthy. Tom’s machinations, adventures are worth reading.
The most important part of the plot of the novel is how he pursues and finally wins the inaccessible Sophia Western. The events described are gloriously elaborate and picaresque.
Basic theme relates to a contrast between Tom Jones’ good nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil’s hypocrisy.
Resultant theme includes several other examples of virtue (of squire Allworthy’s), hypocrisy (of parson Twackum’s) and just villainy (for example, aunt Western, ensign Northerton), every so often tempered by repentance (for instance, Mr. Square, Mrs. Waters née Jones).
cheerful characters are self-effacingly partisans and Anglican, even Hanoverian, while disagreeable (aunt Western) or only mistaken ones (Partdrige) would be Jacobites or (squire Western) just anti-Hanoverians.
In his personal life, the author Henry Fielding had severe problems due to lack of money. His family repeatedly endured periods of poverty, but he was helped by Ralph Allen, a wealthy supporter who later formed strong foundation of Squire Allworthy in this novel titled “Tom Jones.”
After the author’s death, this wealthy benefactor, Ralph Allen provided for the education and support of his children.
Henry Fielding (Sharpham, 22 April 1707 – near Lisbon, 8 October 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones.
He founded (with his half-brother John) the Bow Street Runners also called London's first police force, using his authority as a magistrate.
His younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding Fielding married his first wife, Charlotte Craddock, in 1734. She died in 1744.
In 1747, he married his wife's former house cleaner, Mary Daniel.
She was pregnant at the time of their marriage.
Mary bore five children, three of whom died young.
Fielding was educated at Eton College. He established a lifelong friendship with William Pitt the Elder. After a romantic episode with a young woman that ended in his getting into trouble with the law, he went to London where his literary career began.
In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study classics and law.
However, due to lack of money, he was obliged to return to London and he began writing for the theatre, some of his work being savagely critical of the contemporary government under Sir Robert Walpole.
The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 is alleged to be a direct response to his activities. The Golden Rump triggered the enactment (Licensing Act) to control political satire on the stage. Writings of Fielding were connected to political satire. He therefore, had to retire from theater life. He resumed career in law and became a barrister.
Aristotle’s influence can be seen in understandings of the author by reading Chapter iii that deals with the description of a domestic government founded upon rules directly contrary to those of Aristotle. Chapter vi says that “The trial of Partridge, the schoolmaster, for incontinency; the evidence of his wife; a short reflection on the wisdom of our law; with other grave matters, which those will like best who understand them most.”
Chapter vii gives a sketch of that felicity which prudent couples may extract from hatred: with a short apology for those people who overlook imperfections in their friends.
Chapter viii details a recipe to regain the lost affections of a wife, which hath never been known to fail in the most desperate cases.
Chapter ix provides “A proof of the infallibility of the foregoing receipt, in the lamentations of the widow; with other suitable decorations of death, such as physicians, &c., and an epitaph in the true style.”
BOOK III contains most memorable transactions, which passed in the family of Mr. Allworthy the time when Tommy Jones arrived at the gate of fourteen, until he attained the age of nineteen. In this Book, the reader may pick up some hints concerning the education of children.
Chapter vi in Book IV contains “An apology for the insensibility of Mr. Jones to all the charms of the lovely Sophia; in which possibly we may, in a considerable degree, lower his character in the estimation of those men of wit and gallantry who approve the heroes in most of our modern comedies.
BOOK V talks about Mr. Jones receives many friendly visits during his confinement; with some fine touches of the passion of love, scarce visible to the naked eye. In this part saying of Aeschines [Chapter ix] is elucidated that "drunkenness shows the mind of a man, as a mirror reflects his person."
BOOK XII Chapter I discuss the issue of plagiarism as practiced by a modern author. “The learned reader must have observed that in the course of this mighty work, I have often translated passages out of the best ancient authors, without quoting the original, or without taking the least notice of the book from whence they were borrowed.
This conduct in writing is placed in a very proper light by the ingenious Abbé Bannier, in his preface to his Mythology, a work of great erudition and of equal judgment.
"It will be easy," says he, "for the reader to observe that I have frequently had greater regard to him than to my own reputation: for an author certainly pays him a considerable compliment, when, for his sake, he suppresses learned quotations that come in his way, and which would have cost him but the bare trouble of transcribing."
To fill up a work with these scraps may, indeed, be considered as a downright cheat on the learned world, who are by such means imposed upon to buy a second time, in fragments and by retail, what they have already in gross, if not in their memories, upon their shelves; and it is still more cruel upon the illiterate, who are drawn in to pay for what is of no manner of use to them.
A writer who intermixes great quantity of Greek and Latin with his works, deals by the ladies and fine gentlemen in the same paltry manner with which they are treated by the auctioneers, who often endeavor so to confound and mix up their lots, that, in order to purchase the commodity you want, you are obliged at the same time to purchase that which will do you no service.
And yet, as there is no conduct so fair and disinterested but that it may be misunderstood by ignorance, and misrepresented by malice, I have been sometimes tempted to preserve my own reputation at the expense of my reader, and to transcribe the original, or at least to quote chapter and verse, whenever I have made use either of the thought or expression of another.
I am, indeed, in some doubt that I have often suffered by the contrary method; and that, by suppressing the original author's name, I have been rather suspected of plagiarism than reputed to act from the amiable motive assigned by that justly celebrated Frenchman.
Now, to obviate all such imputations for the future, I do here confess and justify the fact. The ancients may be considered as a rich common, where every person who hath the smallest tenement in Parnassus hath a free right to fatten his muse.
Or, to place it in a clearer light, we moderns are to the ancients what the poor are to the rich. By the poor here, I mean that large and venerable body which, in English, we call the mob.
Now, whoever hath had the honour to be admitted to any degree of intimacy with this mob, must well know that it is one of their established maxims to plunder and pillage their rich neighbours without any reluctance; and that this is held to be neither sin nor shame among them.
And so constantly do they abide and act by this maxim, that, in every parish almost in the kingdom, there is a kind of confederacy ever carrying on against a certain person of opulence called the squire, whose property is considered as free-booty by all his poor neighbours; who, as they conclude that there is no manner of guilt in such depredations, look upon it as a point of honour and moral obligation to conceal, and to preserve each other from punishment on all such occasions.
In like manner are the ancients, such as Homer, Virgil, Horace, Cicero, and the rest, to be esteemed among us writers, as so many wealthy squires, from whom we, the poor of Parnassus, claim an immemorial custom of taking whatever we can come at.
This liberty I demand, and this I am as ready to allow again to my poor neighbours in their turn. All I profess, and all I require of my brethren, is to maintain the same strict honesty among ourselves, which the mob shows to one another. To steal from one another is indeed highly criminal and indecent; for this may be strictly styled defrauding the poor (sometimes perhaps those who are poorer than ourselves), or, to set it under the most opprobrious colours, robbing the spittal.
Since, therefore, upon the strictest examination, my own conscience cannot lay any such pitiful theft to my charge, I am contented to plead guilty to the former accusation; nor shall I ever scruple to take to myself any passage which I shall find in an ancient author to my purpose, without setting down the name of the author from whence it was taken. Nay, I absolutely claim a property in all such sentiments the moment they are transcribed into my writings, and I expect all
readers hence forwards to regard them as purely and entirely my own.
This claim, however, I desire to be allowed me only on condition that I preserve strict honesty towards my poor brethren, from whom, if ever I borrow any of that little of which they are possessed, I shall never fail to put their mark upon it, that it may be at all times ready to be restored to the right owner.
The omission of this was highly blamable in one Mr. Moore, who, having formerly borrowed some lines of Pope and company, took the liberty to transcribe six of them into his play of the Rival Modes.
Mr. Pope, however, very luckily found them in the said play, and, laying violent hands on his own property, transferred it back again into his own works; and, for a further punishment, imprisoned the said Moore in the loathsome dungeon of the Dunciad, where his unhappy memory now remains, and eternally will remain, as a proper punishment for such his unjust dealings in the poetical trade.”
BOOK XVIII CHAPTER XI – The history draws nearer to a conclusion, and in Chapter X the history concludes.
I would recommend this book to a very serious reader who is extremely curious about developmental and educational aspects prevalent in 1749 and various other aspects associated with it including the drama script that had grave impact upon the local legislation that was to shape future course of law for the rest of the lot.
I really enjoyed reading this book but it takes more time to understand few aspects drawn and it needs complete freedom of time and peaceful atmosphere where you can enjoy reading this book.
If you like thrillers, and if Quantum of Solace (Daniel Craig with Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Amalric) is being screened near your house then you must first go and see it, exhaust your mental energies by seeing “action” in movies because this book is not for thriller, suspense or action seekers.
That notwithstanding as its back cover truly says “Fielding’s blithe and racy humour, his insight into sexual ethics and social hypocrisy and his preoccupation with happiness as well as goodness gives us, in Tom Jones, an unrivalled entertainment.”
Of course for all students of English Literature this book will be a great help in providing true guidance in their studies and in learning the development of a ‘plot’ or a ‘theme’ for a writing landmark novel that always remain very close to reality. This theme of this novel takes with it Forty-Five characters from Romanism as the established religion of England to the Glorious revolution.
This novel is excellent for those wanting to learn more on how to maintain serious plot without compromising the entertainment part of a novel.
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