Henry Fielding: A Life

by Martin C. Battestin

"Henry Fielding: A Life" offers a biography of one the fathers of the modern novel. Martin Battestin presents an account of Fielding's eventful life as a youthful libertine who later became the self-appointed censor of the age. The hardback edition was chosen as one of the top four biographies of 1989 by "The Sunday Times".

786 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 1989

About the author

Martin Carey Battestin (1930–2015) was a prominent American literary scholar and the "foremost Henry Fielding scholar" of his time. He served as the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Virginia.
Battestin's work primarily focused on 18th-century English literature, particularly the life and works of novelist Henry Fielding.

Reviews

[John]

Battestin gives us a vivid presentation of Fielding - but I do wish he had dwelt a bit on events of central importance in Fielding's life.

For example, we learn that at age twenty Fielding burst upon the theater scene in London (ca. 1728) with a play, which exhibits the writerly skill, knowledge of stagecraft and the high literary ambition of a seasoned dramatist, who sought to become rich by the productions of his pen. But up to about page 55-6, where we read of this prodigy, we have learned only that Fielding had been a very troubled and troublesome boy and youth. Where did all this skill, experience, knowledge, craft, high wit and ambition come from? Reconstituted from freeze-dried ingredients apparently. This sort of surprise appears with sufficient frequency so as to become annoying especially in view of the author's willingness to split evidentiary hairs and to speculate endless on the question of Fielding's incestuous relationship with his sister. What exactly justifies this balance of emphasis?

Nonetheless, a wonderful portrait of Fielding as adult in the public eye. I just wonder how he got there.