The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

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Tom Jones
TomJonesTitle.png
Title page from the 1749 edition
Author Henry Fielding
Original titleThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Publisher Andrew Millar
Publication date
28 February 1749
Publication placeEngland
Text Tom Jones at Wikisource

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It is a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. It was first published on 28 February 1749 in London and is among the earliest English works to be classified as a novel. [1] It is the earliest novel mentioned by W. Somerset Maugham in his 1948 book Great Novelists and Their Novels, in which Maugham ranks the ten best novels of the world. [2]

Contents

The novel is highly organised despite its length. Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued that it has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned", alongside Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles and The Alchemist by Ben Jonson. [3] It became a best-seller, with four editions published in its first year alone. [4] It is generally regarded as Fielding's greatest book and as an influential English novel. [5]

Plot

The wealthy Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget are introduced in their estate in Somerset. Allworthy returns from London after an extended business trip and finds an abandoned baby sleeping in his bed. He summons his housekeeper, Mrs Deborah Wilkins, to take care of the child. After searching the nearby village Mrs Wilkins is told about Jenny Jones, the young servant of a schoolmaster and his wife, as the most likely person to have committed the deed. Jenny is brought before the Allworthys and admits being the one who put the baby in the bed, but refuses to reveal the father's identity. Mr. Allworthy removes Jenny to a place where her reputation will be unknown and tells Bridget to raise the boy, whom he names Thomas, in his household.

Two brothers, Dr Blifil and Captain Blifil, regularly visit the Allworthy estate. The doctor introduces the captain to Bridget in the hope of marrying into Allworthy's wealth. The couple soon marries. After the marriage, Captain Blifil begins to show a coldness to his brother, who eventually feels obliged to leave the house for London. He does, and later dies "of a broken heart." Captain Blifil and Bridget start to grow cool towards one another, and the former is found dead from apoplexy one evening after taking his customary evening stroll before dinner. By then, he has fathered a boy who grows up with the bastard Tom. Captain Blifil's son, known as Master Blifil, is a jealous boy who conspires against Tom.

Tom grows into a youth. He tends to be closer friends with the servants and gamekeepers than with members of the gentry. He is close friends with Black George, who is the gamekeeper. His first love is Molly, Black George's second daughter. She throws herself at Tom, who then feels obliged to offer her his protection after learning that she is pregnant. However, Tom later realizes that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's daughter, Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia confess their love for each other after he breaks his arm rescuing her. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to disapprove their love. [a]

Squire Allworthy falls ill and is convinced that he is dying. His family and servants gather around his bed as he disposes of his wealth. He gives a favourable amount of it to Tom, which displeases Master Blifil. Tom does not care about what he has been given, since his only concern is Allworthy's health. Allworthy's health improves and he learns that he will live. Tom is so excited that he gets drunk and eventually fights with Master Blifil. Meanwhile, Bridget dies in London. Wanting to conceal her love for Tom, Sophia gives a majority of her attention to Blifil when the three of them are together. This leads to Sophia's aunt, Mrs Western, believing that Sophia and Blifil are in love. Squire Western wants Sophia to marry Blifil to gain property from the Allworthy estate. Blifil learns of Sophia's affection for Tom and is angry. Blifil tells Allworthy that, on the day he almost died, Tom was out drinking and celebrating his coming death. This leads Tom to be banished.

Tom's banishment seems to ensure that Sophia will be forced to marry Blifil, whom she finds odious, so she flees to avoid that fate. Meanwhile, expelled from Allworthy's estate, Tom begins his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in London. En route, he meets a barber, Partridge, who was banished from town because he was thought to be Tom's father. He becomes Tom's faithful companion in the hope of restoring his reputation. During their journey, they end up at an inn. While they are there, a lady and her maid arrive. An angry man arrives, and the chambermaid points him in the direction that she thinks he needs to go. He bursts in on Tom and Mrs Waters, a woman whom Tom rescued, in bed together. The man, however, was looking for Mrs Fitzpatrick and leaves. Sophia and her maid arrive at the same inn, and Partridge unknowingly reveals the relationship between Tom and Mrs Waters. Sophia leaves with Mrs Fitzpatrick, who is her cousin, and heads for London. They arrive at the home of Lady Bellaston, followed by Tom and Partridge. Eventually, Tom says that his true love is for Sophia and no one else. Tom ends up getting into a duel with Mr Fitzpatrick, which leads to his imprisonment.

Eventually, the secret of Tom's birth is revealed after a brief scare involving Mrs Waters. Mrs Waters is really Jenny Jones, Tom's supposed mother, and Tom fears that he committed incest. This, however, is not the case, as Tom's mother had in fact been Bridget, who had conceived him with a man who died before he was born. Tom is thus Squire Allworthy's nephew. After finding out about the intrigues of Blifil, who is Tom's half-brother, Allworthy decides to bestow most of his inheritance on Tom. After Tom's true parentage is revealed, he and Sophia marry, as Squire Western no longer harbours any misgivings about Tom marrying his daughter. Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy.

Style

The highly visible narrator is a central feature of Tom Jones. Each book begins with a prefatory chapter directly addressing the reader, and the narrator provides a continuous commentary on characters and events. Lady Bellaston, for instance, is widely believed to have been inspired by the real life character of Etheldreda Townshend. [7] According to Wayne C. Booth, the reader's relationship with the narrator is something like a subplot. The reader becomes more attached to the narrator over the course of the book, culminating in a heartfelt farewell. [8]

The fight at the inn at Upton Tom Jones & the Landlord, Partridge & Susan, Mrs Waters & the Landlady, from "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" by Henry Fielding MET DP872043.jpg
The fight at the inn at Upton

Fielding presents a panorama of contemporary British life, drawing characters from many different classes and occupations. But Ian Watt argues in The Rise of the Novel that Fielding did not aim at the "realism of presentation" of lifelike detail and psychology practised by authors such as Richardson. Watt claims that Fielding was more focused on the "realism of assessment," the way in which the novel engages a broad range of topics with intelligence and "a wise assessment of life." [9]

Themes

The main theme of the novel is the contrast between Tom Jones's good nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil's hypocrisy. Secondary themes include several other examples of virtue (especially that of Squire Allworthy), hypocrisy (especially that of Thwackum) and villainy (for example, that of Mrs Western and Ensign Northerton), sometimes tempered by repentance (for instance Square and Mrs Waters née Jones).

Both introductory chapters to each book and interspersed commentary introduce a long line of further themes. For instance, introductory chapters dwell extensively on bad writers and critics, quite unrelated to the plot but apologetic to the author and the novel itself; and authorial commentary on several characters shows strong opposition to Methodism, calling it fanatical and heretical, and falsely implying an association between Methodism and hypocrites such as the younger Blifil.

The novel takes place against the backdrop of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Characters take different sides over the rebellion, which was an attempt to restore Roman Catholicism as the established religion of England and to undo the Glorious Revolution. At one point Sophia Western is even mistaken for Jenny Cameron, the supposed lover of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Good-natured characters are often moderately loyalist and Anglican, or even supporters of the House of Hanover, while ill-natured characters (Mrs Western) or mistaken ones (Partridge) can be Jacobites, or (like Squire Western) anti-Hanoverian.

List of characters

Caption at bottom:

SOPHIA WESTERN:

"Adorned with all the charms in which Nature can array her, bedecked with beauty, youth, sprightliness, innocence, modesty and tenderness, breathing sweetness from her rosy lips and darting brightness from her sparkling eyes, the lovely Sophia comes!"
This depicts the heroine of the novel, but shows her in the latest fashions of 1800, rather than in the historically accurate hoop skirts of 1749 - it would have been extremely difficult to skip in the clothing styles (and high-heeled shoes) of 1749...
The dishevelment of her clothes in the picture was not meant to contradict the word "modesty" in the caption, but was supposed to be understood as being the accidental and unintentional effect of her strenuous physical activity. 1800-jumprope-pinup-Sophia-Western.jpg
Caption at bottom:
SOPHIA WESTERN:

"Adorned with all the charms in which Nature can array her, bedecked with beauty, youth, sprightliness, innocence, modesty and tenderness, breathing sweetness from her rosy lips and darting brightness from her sparkling eyes, the lovely Sophia comes!"
This depicts the heroine of the novel, but shows her in the latest fashions of 1800, rather than in the historically accurate hoop skirts of 1749 – it would have been extremely difficult to skip in the clothing styles (and high-heeled shoes) of 1749...
The dishevelment of her clothes in the picture was not meant to contradict the word "modesty" in the caption, but was supposed to be understood as being the accidental and unintentional effect of her strenuous physical activity.

Adaptations and influences

Notes

  1. This class friction gives Fielding an opportunity for biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also novel for its time, and it was the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness." [6]

See also

Bibliography

Editions

Critical collections

Monographs

References

  1. Yardley, Jonathan (9 December 2003). "Tom Jones, as Fresh as Ever". The Washington Post. p. C1. Retrieved 31 December 2006.
  2. "Somerset Maugham's Ten Best Novels of the World". home.comcast.net. Archived from the original on 27 February 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Henry Nelson Coleridge, Specimens of the table talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (London, England: John Murray, 1835), volume 2, page 339.
  4. Patton, Allyson (12 June 2006). "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Book Review)". Historynet.com. HistoryNet LLC. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  5. Drabble, Margaret, ed. (1998) The Oxford Companion to English Literature; (2nd) revised ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; pp. 982–983
  6. Fielding, H (1950), "Introduction by G. Sherburn", The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, New York: Modern Library, p. viii.
  7. Sherson, Errol (1926). The Lively Lady Townshend and her Friends. London: William Heinemann Ltd. p. 314.
  8. Booth, Wayne C (1961). The Rhetoric of Fiction . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp.  94-96. ISBN   9780226065786.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  9. Watt, Ian (2015) [1957]. The Rise of the Novel. London: The Bodley Head. p. 288. ISBN   9781847923851.
  10. Amos, William (1985). The Originals: Who's Really Who in Fiction. Cardinal. p. 542.
  11. "Tom Jones (Macalpine)". Archived from the original on 19 August 2014.
  12. Sun, Douglas (19 January 1986). "The Later Adventures of Tom Jones by Bob Coleman (Linden/Simon & Schuster: $15.95; 347 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  13. Jones, Chris (27 January 2014). "Jory's stage version of novel has wit but lacks clarity". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  14. "Tom Jones musical What's New Pussycat? to premiere this autumn". The Guardian. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  15. "Solly McLeod & Sophie Wilde Starring In 'Tom Jones' Reimagining For Masterpiece, Mammoth Screen & ITV". Deadline Hollywood.

Sources