The Life of Henry Fielding: A Critical Biography

For Henry Fielding, ′storytelling′, whether in the form of a play, essay or novel, was a means of transmuting the dross of his own experiences. In this important new critical biography, Ronald Paulson brilliantly demonstrates how Fielding′s life and writings evolved according to his experiments with different professions. It is not sufficient to say that he moved from one literary genre to the next, from drama to essay, from satire to novel. As a playwright and theater manager he thematized the theater and its workings in his writings, moving on to do the same as a journalist, barrister, and finally magistrate. Tom Jones, for example, can be interpreted as a self–projection, seen from the perspective of a barrister, an advocate for the defense; or Billy Booth as a conflation of the author and his father, seen now from the perspective of a grim but just magistrate. Each chapter in this intriguing book begins with an annotated chronology of the known facts, followed by analyses of the important issues. Paulson′s account will be essential reading for all admirers of Fielding as well as serious students of his work.

List of Illustrations. Preface. 1. Student, 1707–1730. Chronology. Early Life. Literary Apprenticeship. 2. Playwright, 1730–1737. Chronology. Author of Farce and Comedy. Libertine and Freethinker. 3. Hackney Writer and Barrister, 1737–1741. Chronology. Essayist. Experiments in Prose and Poetry. 4. Author of Joseph Andrews, 1741–1742. Chronology. Anti– Pamela: Character and Action. The Man in the Work. 5. Author of Tom Jones, 1742–1748. Chronology. Man of Letters. Attorney for the Defense. Patriot and Historian. 6. Magistrate, 1748–1754. Chronology. Reformer. Author of Amelia. Autobiography. In the Wake of Amelia. Retirement and Death. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Ronald Paulson is professor of English at John Hopkins University. He is both a major authority on Henry Fielding and one of the world′s leading scholars of eighteenth–century literary and artistic culture. His recent books include The Beautiful, Novel and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy (!995) and Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter (1998).

"With its generous fomat and heavyweight line–up of contributors, the Blackwell Critical Biographies series has developed into an impressive body of biographical and critical appraisals, and The Life of Henry Fielding is a powerful addition." Review of English Studies <!––end––> "Instead of dwelling on the life, Paulson (John Hopkins Univ.) provides learned and sensitive readings of all of Fielding′s major works and many minor ones." "The comments on Fielding′s attitudes toward deism and his relationship with William Hogarth are valuable. The scholarship is admirably thorough." "Recommended for collections serving upper–division undergraduates and above." Choice