The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

By Henry Fielding, Alice Wakely (editor), Tom Keymer (editor)

Book cover of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Book description

Henry Fielding's picaresque tale of a young man's search for his place in the world, The History of Tom Jones is edited with notes and an introduction by Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely in Penguin Classics.

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Although published long ago, it is remarkable how easy it is to become involved in this book and be charmed by its main character, Tom.

Orphans abound in 18th and 19th-century fiction. What happens to him in an upper-class environment is inevitably unfair and hypocritical, so when he gets on the road—whether as a result of desire or force—the fun truly begins.

Tom says at the beginning that his tale has the purpose of understanding “human nature”, and after spending time with him on his adventures, from the estate where he grows up to his romp in London, we have…

From Cinda's list on going on the road.

What a delightful book! The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, published in 1749, is a marvelously silly story of love and loss, greed, deceit, and youthful sexual abandon, and provides a happy ending for Tom and his love, Sophia Weston.

The eponymous 1963 movie, starring Albert Finney and Susannah York, succeeds in portraying the pivotal adventures in this epic, but the 900-page novel offers so much more. The author’s preambles to each of the eighteen books (within the novel) are very lively and connect us to his thinking on the sociology of eighteenth-century England.   

Fielding’s treatment of women…

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