''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
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...
'' 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. It is the earliest novel mentioned by
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
in his 1948 book ''
Great Novelists and Their Novels'' among the ten best novels of the world.
The novel is highly organised despite its length.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...
argued that it has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned", alongside ''
Oedipus Tyrannus'' and ''
The Alchemist
An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy.
Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to:
Books and stories
* ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho
* ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Ben ...
''. It became a best seller with four editions published in its first year alone. It is generally regarded as Fielding's greatest book and as an influential English novel.
Plot
The novel's events occupy eighteen books. It opens with the narrator stating that the purpose of the novel will be to explore "human nature".
The kindly and wealthy Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget are introduced in their wealthy estate in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, established_date = Ancient
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, preceded_by =
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, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
. 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 a young woman called Jenny Jones, a 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 she refuses to reveal the father's identity. Mr Allworthy mercifully removes Jenny to a place where her reputation will be unknown and tells his sister 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, soon after, he dies "of a broken heart". Captain Blifil and his wife 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 miserable and jealous boy who conspires against Tom.
Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty yet honest and kind-hearted 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 and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom, who gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia confess their love for each other after Tom breaks his arm rescuing Sophia. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to disapprove their love. 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".
Squire Allworthy falls ill and is convinced that he is dying. His family and servants gather around his bed as he disposes his wealth. He gives a favourable amount of his wealth to Tom Jones, which displeases Master Blifil. Tom doesn't care about what he has been given, since his only concern is Allworthy's health. Allworthy's health improves, and we learn that he will live. At the same time, Mrs. Bridget Allworthy dies in London. Tom Jones is so excited that he begins to get drunk and gets into a fight with Master Blifil. Sophia wants to conceal her love for Tom, so she 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 in order to gain property from the Allworthy estate. Blifil learns of Sophia's true affection for Tom Jones and is angry. Blifil tells Allworthy that, on the day he almost died, Tom was out drinking and singing 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. After Tom is expelled from Allworthy's estate he begins his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. On the way, 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 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 tells Sophia that his true love is for her 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 has committed
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...
. This, however, is not the case, as Tom's mother is in fact Bridget Allworthy, who conceived him after an affair with a schoolmaster. 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. 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.
Fielding presents a panorama of contemporary British life, drawing characters from many different classes and occupations. But
Ian Watt
Ian Watt (9 March 1917 – 13 December 1999) was a literary critic, literary historian and professor of English at Stanford University. His ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding'' (1957) is an important work in the h ...
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
Richardson may refer to:
People
* Richardson (surname), an English and Scottish surname
* Richardson Gang, a London crime gang in the 1960s
* Richardson Dilworth, Mayor of Philadelphia (1956-1962)
Places Australia
* Richardson, Australian Cap ...
. 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".
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
Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards: ...
Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil's
hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...
. Secondary themes include several other examples of virtue (especially that of Squire Allworthy), hypocrisy (especially that of Thwackum) and
villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...
y (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
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...
, calling it
fanatical and
heretical, and 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
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...
. Characters take different sides over the rebellion, which was an attempt to restore
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
as the
established religion
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a ...
of England and to undo the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
. At one point Sophia Western is even mistaken for
Jenny Cameron, the supposed lover of
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...
. Good-natured characters are often moderately
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
and
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
, or even supporters of the
House of Hanover
The House of Hanover (german: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house orig ...
, while ill-natured characters (Mrs Western) or mistaken ones (Partridge) can be
Jacobites
Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to:
Religion
* Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include:
** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...
, or (like Squire Western) anti-Hanoverian.
List of characters
![1800-jumprope-pinup-Sophia-Western](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/1800-jumprope-pinup-Sophia-Western.jpg)
* Master Thomas "Tom" Jones, a bastard and Squire Allworthy's ward
* Miss Sophia "Sophy" Western , Western's only daughter, the model of virtue, beauty and all good qualities
* Master William Blifil , the son of Captain Blifil and Bridget; a hypocrite and Tom Jones's rival
* Squire Allworthy, the wealthy squire of an estate in Somerset and Tom's guardian; of irreproachable character and good nature
* Squire Western, a wealthy squire and huntsman who owns an estate bordering on Squire Allworthy's; a simpleton who wants to marry his daughter Sophia to Allworthy's heir (first Blifil and then Jones)
* Miss Bridget Allworthy (later Mrs Blifil), Allworthy's sister
* Lady Bellaston, Tom's lover and a leading figure in London society, who tries to force Sophia into marriage to a lord by having her raped by him, so that she can have Jones to herself
* Mrs Honour Blackmore, Sophia's maid; egotistical and inconstant to her employer
* Dr Blifil, Captain Blifil's brother; dies of a broken heart at his brother's rejection
* Captain John Blifil, a captain in the army and Bridget Allworthy's husband; with Methodist tendencies
* Lawyer Dowling, a lawyer
* Lord Fellamar, a peer and socialite; unsuccessfully conspires with Lady Bellaston to rape Sophia so as to force her into marriage
* Brian Fitzpatrick, an Irishman who abuses his wife, Harriet Fitzpatrick
* Harriet Fitzpatrick, Mrs Western's former ward and Fitzpatrick's wife; a cousin and friend of Sophia, but lacking her virtue
* Miss Jenny Jones (later Mrs Waters), the Partridges' servant, a very intelligent woman who is believed to be Tom's mother
* Mrs Miller, mother of Nancy and Betty Miller
* Miss Betty Miller, pre-adolescent daughter of Mrs Miller
* Miss Nancy Miller (later Nightingale), a good-natured girl who is imposed on by Mr Nightingale and is ruined by him, together with her family, by lack of constancy in virtue
* Mr Nightingale, a young gentleman of leisure; saved from ruining his first true love by Jones's entreaties
* Mr Benjamin "Little Benjamin" Partridge, a teacher, barber, and surgeon, suspected to be Tom Jones's father
* Mrs Partridge, Partridge's extremely ill-natured first wife
* Mr George "Black George" Seagrim, Allworthy and later Western's gamekeeper; a poor man and the object of Tom's charity
* Miss Molly "Moll" Seagrim, Black George's second daughter and Tom Jones's first lover; has a bastard son, possibly not by Tom
* Mr Thomas Square, a humanist philosopher and tutor to Tom and Master Blifil; a hypocrite who hates Jones and favors Blifil, but eventually repents
* The Rev. Mr Roger Thwackum, tutor to Tom and Master Blifil, a hypocrite who hates Tom Jones, favors Master Blifil and conspires with the latter against the former
* Miss Western, Squire Western's unmarried sister, who wrongly believes herself to "know the World" (both international and national politics and social mores)
* Mrs Deborah Wilkins, Bridget's servant
Adaptations and influences
The book was made into the 1963 film ''
Tom Jones
Tom Jones may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer
* Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist
*''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...
'' written by
John Osborne
John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...
, directed by
Tony Richardson, and starring
Albert Finney
Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with '' The Entertainer'' (1960) ...
as Tom. In 1964, a studio cast recording of a musical adaptation produced by Theatre Productions Records featured Clive Revill (as the narrator), Bob Roman (Tom), Karen Morrow (Mrs. Waters); music by Bob Roberts, lyrics by Ruth Batchelor, arranged and conducted by ''
Peter Matz
Peter Matz (November 6, 1928 – August 9, 2002) was an American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent ...
''. It inspired the 1976 film ''
The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones
''The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones'' is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Cliff Owen and starring Nicky Henson, Trevor Howard and Terry-Thomas. It is an adaptation of the 1749 novel '' Tom Jones'' by Henry Fielding, which follows the ma ...
''. It has also been the basis of operas by
François-André Philidor (
''Tom Jones'', 1765); by
Edward German (
''Tom Jones'', 1907); and by
Stephen Oliver in 1975. A BBC
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
dramatised by Simon Burke was broadcast in 1997 with
Max Beesley
Maxton Gig Beesley Jr. (born 16 April 1971) is an English actor and musician. He has appeared in a variety of television shows such as ''Bodies'', ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', '' Survivors'', '' Mad Dogs'', ''Homeland'', '' Suits ...
in the title role. The book has also been adapted for the stage by Joan Macalpine. In 2014,
Jon Jory Jon Jory is a theatrical director instrumental in the development of Actors Theatre of Louisville; he is also widely rumored to be the writer behind the pseudonym Jane Martin.
Childhood
Jory is a child of Hollywood character actors as his father ...
adapted the novel for the stage. In 2020, it was announced that the book will also be adapted into a jukebox musical called
''What's New Pussycat?'' featuring songs by the singer
Tom Jones
Tom Jones may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer
* Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist
*''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...
setting the story in the 1960s. A TV miniseries will star Solly McLeod and Sophie Wilde in mid-2022.
See also
*
Illegitimacy in fiction
Bibliography
Editions
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (London:
Andrew Millar
Andrew Millar (17058 June 1768) was a British publisher in the eighteenth century.
Biography
In 1725, as a twenty-year-old bookseller apprentice, he evaded Edinburgh city printing restrictions by going to Leith to print, which was considered be ...
, 1749). The first edition.
* Fielding, Henry "Tom Jones" (New York: The Modern Library, 1931). First Modern Library Edition.
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1975) . Edited by Martin Battestin and Fredson C. Bowers. Widely taken to be the authoritative version.
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995) . Edited with notes by Sheridan Baker. This edition includes a collection of critical essays; it is based on the fourth and final edition of the novel, though it also includes the version of The Man of the Hill episode found in the 3rd edition in an appendix.
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (London: Everyman's Library, 1998) . Edited with an introduction and notes by Douglas Brooks-Davies.
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005) . Edited with an introduction and notes by Tom Keymer and Alice Wakely.
* Fielding, Henry ''Tom Jones'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985). Edited with an introduction and notes by Reginald P. C. Mutter.
Critical collections
* Compton, Neil (ed.) ''Henry Fielding: Tom Jones, A Casebook'' (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1987) . Includes essays by
William Empson,
Ian Watt
Ian Watt (9 March 1917 – 13 December 1999) was a literary critic, literary historian and professor of English at Stanford University. His ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding'' (1957) is an important work in the h ...
, and Claude Rawson, amongst others.
;Monographs
* Battestin, Martin C. ''The Providence of Wit'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) . Includes a chapter on ''Tom Jones''.
* Ewers, Chris. ''Mobility in the English Novel from Defoe to Austen'' (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2018) . Includes a chapter on ''Tom Jones''.
* Power, Henry. ''Epic into Novel'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) . Includes two chapters on ''Tom Jones''.
* Rogers, Pat ''The Augustan Vision'' (London: Methuen, 1978) . Includes a chapter on Fielding, which treats ''Tom Jones'' briefly.
* Watt, Ian ''The Rise of the Novel'' (London: Pimlico, 2000) . Includes a chapter on ''Tom Jones'', preceded by one titled 'Fielding and the epic theory of the novel'.
References
Sources
* .
* .
* Battestin, Martin. ''The Providence of Wit: Aspects of Form in Augustan Literature and the Arts''. Oxford: Clarendon, 1974.
* Hunter, J. Paul. ''Before Novels: The Cultural Context of Eighteenth-Century English Fiction''. New York: WW Norton and Co., 1990.
* McKeon, Michael. ''The Origins of the English Novel, 1600–1740''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.
* Paulson, Ronald. ''Satire and the Novel in the Eighteenth Century''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967.
* Richetti, John. "Representing an Under Class: Servants and Proletarians in Fielding and Smollett." ''The New Eighteenth Century: Theory, Politics, English Literature''. Eds.
Felicity Nussbaum
Felicity A. Nussbaum (born 1944) is Distinguished Research Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include 18th-century literature and culture, critical theory, gender studies and postcolonial and ...
and Laura Brown. London: Routledge, 1987.
* Richetti, John.
The Old Order and the New Novel of the Mid-Eighteenth Century: Narrative Authority in Fielding and Smollett. ''Eighteenth-Century Fiction'' 2 (1990): 99–126.
* Smallwood, Angela J. ''Fielding and the Woman Question''. New York: St. Martin's, 1989.
*
Spacks, Patricia Meyer. ''Desire and Truth: Functions of Plot in Eighteenth-Century English Novels''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
* Watt, Ian. ''The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957.
External links
*
''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling''from
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
(plain text and HTML)
*
*
''Tom Jones the Musical''full album audio at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, The
1749 novels
British novels adapted into films
British novels adapted into plays
Novels adapted into operas
Novels by Henry Fielding
18th-century British novels
Picaresque novels
English novels
Novels set in Somerset