Miscellanies by Henry Fielding, Esq: Volume One

by Henry Fielding, Bertrand A. Goldgar (Contributor), Hugh Amory (Editor)

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++Harvard University Houghton LibraryN011111The collective titlepage appears only in vol. 1. Each volume has a separate titlepage with an imprint reading the same as that of the collective titlepage: 'Miscellanies, by Henry Fielding Esq; Vol. I. The second edition.'; 'Miscellanies, by Henry Fielding Esq; Vol. II. A journey from this world to the next, and 'Miscellanies. The life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. Vol. III. By Henry Fielding, Esq; The second edition.'.London: printed for A. Millar, 1743. 3v.; 8

345 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1743

About the author

Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754) was an English dramatist, journalist and novelist. The son of an army lieutenant and a judge's daughter, he was educated at Eton School and the University of Leiden before returning to England where he wrote a series of farces, operas and light comedies.

Fielding formed his own company and was running the Little Theatre, Haymarket, when one of his satirical plays began to upset the government. The passing of the Theatrical Licensing Act in 1737 effectively ended Fielding's career as a playwright.

In 1739, Fielding turned to journalism and became editor of The Champion. He also began writing novels, including: The Adventures of Joseph Andrews (1742) and Jonathan Wild (1743).

Fielding was made a justice of the peace for Westminster and Middlesex in 1748. He campaigned against legal corruption and helped his half-brother, Sir John Fielding, establish the Bow Street Runners.

In 1749, Fielding's novel The History of Tom Jones was published to public acclaim. Critics agree that it is one of the greatest comic novels in the English language. He followed this success with another well received novel, Amelia, in 1751.

Fielding continued as a journalist and his satirical journal, Covent Garden, continued to upset those in power. Throughout his life, Fielding suffered from poor health. By 1752, he could not move without the help of crutches. In an attempt to overcome his health problems, Henry Fielding went to live in Portugal, but this was not successful, and he died in Lisbon in 1754.

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ably edited by Henry Knight Miller, this first volume of Fielding's miscellanies is a grab bag of genres which nevertheless has more unity of theme than one might initially have anticipated. Fielding basically emptied his desk drawer for anything to fill these volumes out (especially this first). So naturally there is some weaker material here, especially the early verse: Fielding is a better playwright than poet and better novelist than either. This first volume demonstrates the wisdom of his having left poetry for prose. Despite their weaknesses, some of the poems have links to themes in the prose. Thus "Of True Greatness" and "Of Good Nature" broach themes taken up with more verve in the essays. The real strength of this first volume lies in two essays principally: "An Essay on Conversation" and "An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men." Naturally these have both been mined for clues as to how to think about Tom Jones or Amelia, but they stand on their own merits both as thoughtful explorations as well as revelations of the author's way of thinking. There are minor pleasures to be had elsewhere in the volume, though these strike me as the high points.