The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

The foundling Tom Jones is found on the property of a benevolent, wealthy landowner. Tom grows up to be a vigorous, kind-hearted young man, whose love of his neighbor's well-born daughter brings class friction to the fore. The presence of prostitution and promiscuity in Tom Jones caused a sensation at the time it was published, as such themes were uncommon. It is divided into 18 shorter books, and is considered one of the first English-language novels.

Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 - 8 October 1754) was an English author, irony writer, and playwright. His comic novel Tom Jones is still widely appreciated. Fielding was born at Sharpham, Somerset, and studied at Eton College, where he friendship with William Pitt the Elder. Theater and literary critic Henry Fielding was the son of Lt Gen Edmund Fieldingwas the child, and his mom died when he was 11. His penury forced him to move to London, where he wrote for the theater and criticized the public authority of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole from 1734 to 1739. Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 is supposed to be a direct reaction to Fielding's political satire. His later books use the everyday truth of character and action rather than tales. The Female Husband (1746) fictionalizes a case where a female transvestite was pursued duping another woman into marriage. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) is a meticulous comic book with elements of the picaresque and Bildungsroman. He displayed the heroines of Tom Jones and of Amelia on his wife Charlotte Craddock, who died in 1744. Fielding married his previous housekeeper Mary Daniel, who was pregnant, three years after Charlotte's death.