8.

COMMENT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE „PREFACE” TO HENRY FIELDING’S

JOSEPH ANDREWS. TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION FIELDING’S THEORY OF THE
NOVEL AND NOVEL WRITING.

Henry Fielding’s contribution to the development of English literature is mainly

associated with his novels.
In the „Preface” to Joseph Andrews and in the introductory essays to the eighteen books
of Tom Jones, he puts forward his views on the art of novel writing, on the functions of
literature and on the intellectual equipment a writer needs. He was the first novelist and
literary critic to proclaim that the novel was a literary genre of its own, equal to the other
genres in status. Up to him, the novel had been considered an inferior literary product. He
called his novels comic-epic poems in prose adding that the story and the action of the
novel had to be light and amusing, it also had to maintain itself within the domain of
probability.
Hor him, a comic-epic poem in prose differs from the serious romance in its fable and
action, in its characters, by introducing persons of inferior rank and of inferior manners,
while the grave romance sets the highest before us, lastly, in its sentiments and diction,
by preserving the ridiculous instead of the sublime.
He compare the novelist with the historian and the characters in the novel have to belong
to all the social strata. Another rule was that all actions must harmonize with the
character of the person who performs them. Holding that the credible is to be joined with
the surprising, Fielding points out at the same time that a writer may deal as much in the
wonderful as he pleases, and the more he can surprise the reader, the more he will engage
his attention and please him.
Fielding’s influence on the writers of his time and those who followed him was
enormous.

11.The world as a stage in Tom Jones.

Henry Fielding described in his novel „Tom Jones” the English society of his time. His
intention was that of depicting human nature as it was with both its good and weak parts.
He introduced in his work elements, characters and situations of real life, presenting the
world as a stage. The general tendency of Fielding the playwright was to expose the vices
and the corruption of the dominant political classes.
Fielding included in his picaresque novel all the aspects of the 18th century in English
society(countryside, urban life, prison life, domestic life etc.) and managed a wide range
of characters including representatives of all social classes and strata, the higher and the
lower classes. His characers are taken from real life and speak according to their social
status.