Henry Fielding: The Father of the English Novel and His Legacy in Ealing

Brought to you by:

Sam Habeeb

"Shadow MP Campaigner of Ealing North"

Henry Fielding: The Father of the English Novel and His Legacy in Ealing
Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Henry Fielding (22 April 1707–8 October 1754) was an English writer and magistrate known for the use of humor and satire in his works. His 1749 comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a seminal work in the genre. Along with Samuel Richardson, Fielding is seen as the founder of the traditional English novel. He also played an important role in the history of law enforcement in the United Kingdom, using his authority as a magistrate to found the Bow Street Runners, London’s first professional police force.

Who was Henry Fielding?

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was a novelist. He is attributed with the establishment of the modern English novel along with the novelist Samuel Richardson. His novels are funny and satirical, belonging to the picturesque and mock-heroic genres. The most famous ones are The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend, Mr.

What was Henry most known for?

Henry Fielding was an English novelist and playwright of the Restoration period and the founder of London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners.

Early life

Henry Fielding was born on 22 April 1707 at Sharpham Park, the seat of his mother’s family in Sharpham, Somerset. He was the son of Lt.-Gen. Edmund Fielding and Sarah Gould, daughter of Sir Henry Gould. A scion of the Earl of Denbigh, his father was the nephew of William Fielding, 3rd Earl of Denbigh.

Educated at Eton College, Fielding started a lifelong friendship with William Pitt the Elder. His mother died when he was 11. A suit for custody was brought by his grandmother against his charming but irresponsible father, Lt. Gen. Edmund Fielding. The settlement placed Henry in his grandmother’s care, but he continued to see his father in London.

Marriages

Fielding married Charlotte Craddock in 1734 at the Church of St Mary in Charlcombe, Somerset. She died in 1744, and he later modeled the heroines of Tom Jones and Amelia on her. They had five children; their only daughter, Henrietta, died at the age of 23, having already been “in deep decline” when she married a military engineer, James Gabriel Montresor, some months before. Three years after Charlotte’s death, Fielding ignored public opinion by marrying her former maid Mary Daniel, who was pregnant. Mary bore five children: three daughters who died young and two sons, William and Allen.

Role as a Judge and Magistrate

Despite the scandal, Fielding’s consistent anti-Jacobinism and support for the Church of England led to his appointment a year later as Westminster’s chief magistrate, while his literary career went from strength to strength. Most of his work concerned London’s criminal population of thieves, informers, gamblers, and prostitutes. Though living in a corrupt and callous society, he became noted for impartial judgments, incorruptibility, and compassion for those whose social inequities led to crime. The income from his office (“the dirtiest money upon earth”) dwindled as he refused to take money from the very poor. Joined by his younger half-brother John, he helped found what some call London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners, in 1749.

Success as a Dramatist and novelist

His masterpiece is The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), a scrupulous comic novel with elements of the picaresque and the Bildungsroman, telling a complicated story of how a foundling came into a fortune. The novel tells of Tom’s alienation from his foster father, Squire Allworthy, and his sweetheart, Sophia Western, and his reconciliation with them after lively and dangerous adventures on the road and in London. It triumphs as a presentation of English life and character in the mid-18th century. Every social type is represented, and through them, every shade of moral behavior. Fielding’s varied style tempers the basic seriousness of the novel, and his authorial comment before each chapter adds a dimension to a conventional, straightforward narrative. Some of his notable works include:

    • Joseph Andrews
    • Amelia
    • The correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding
    • The Temple Beau
    • The Tragedy of Tragedies
    • Shamela
    • The Author’s Farce
    • Grub Street Opera

Why is Henry Fielding called the father of the English novel?

One of his major contributions to the English novel was a sense of structure to its development. With his Tom Jones, Fielding introduced a new kind of fictional hero: a good-hearted, well-intentioned young man with ordinary human weaknesses, one who yields to temptation with women and makes errors in judgment.

What is Fielding’s concept of the novel?

Fielding combines a positive assertion of the strength of goodness and benevolence (demonstrated by the structure and plot of the novels) with the sharp thrusts of the satirist’s attack upon the hypocrisy and vanity of individual characters.

Who is the father of novels?

Legacy. Sir Walter Scott called Henry Fielding the “father of the English novel,” and the phrase still indicates Fielding’s place in the history of literature.

How many plays did Henry Fielding write?

Fielding attended Eton College but left early and lost his family’s support. In his 25 plays, all written early, he was essentially a satirist of political corruption; because of his sharp commentary, he was eventually effectively banished from the theatre, whereupon he took up the study of law.

What are the two novels of Henry Fielding?

His famous novels include Apology for the Life of Mrs., The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr. The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great—1743, an ironic treatment of Jonathan Wild, a notorious underworld figure of the time.

Why did Henry Fielding write Shamela?

Fielding immediately responded to the very popular novel by writing Shamela (1741) and Joseph Andrew (1742). Using mockery, irony, and satire as literary motifs and tools, Fielding could counterattack the fame Pamela had gained among readers of the era through these novels.

How did Henry Fielding die?

Fielding’s humanitarian commitment to justice in the 1750s (for example, in support of Elizabeth Canning) coincided with rapid deterioration in his health. Gout, asthma, and cirrhosis of the liver left him on crutches, and with other afflictions, sent him to Portugal in 1754 to seek a cure, only to die two months later in Lisbon, reportedly in pain and mental distress. His tomb there is in the British Cemetery (Cemitério Inglês), the graveyard of St. George’s Church, Lisbon.

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Brought to you by:

Sam Habeeb

"Shadow MP Campaigner of Ealing North"

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