The History of Tom Jones - A Foundling [antikvár]

Introduction Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential novels. It is certainly one of the funniest. The eponymous hero - 'an accomplished blackguard' wrote Lord Byron in recognition of his literary counterpart - is discovered as a baby in the bed of the kindly Mr AUworthy, an enlightened Somerset squire. This good man adopts Tom, giving him the surname of his supposed mother, a former housemaid. Tom grows up to be a generous-hearted and handsome young man whose chief weakness is his partiality to young women. In spite of other local dalliances, Tom's true love is the divine Sophia - said to be modelled on Fielding's wife - the daughter of neighbouring Squire Western, a man who is as gross and ignorant as Squire AUworthy is refined. However, Western intends Sophia for Blifil, Allworthy's nephew and heir, and Blifil, a treacherous young prig, succeeds in achieving Tom's disgrace and banishment. The central part of the novel concerns Tom's picaresque adventures on the road which leads him to London and his adventures in the capital. He falls in with Redcoats, has an amorous adventure with a woman who Tom later fears may be his mother and in London becomes entangled with the glamorous Lady Bellaston. Meanwhile, Sophia has become disgusted by Blifil's advances and escaped to London also, where she falls prey to Lady Bellaston's plans to marry her to the dissolute Lord Fellamar. Tom is indicted for a supposed murder and, rejected by Sophia, his fortunes hit rock bottom. But at this point he is shown to be the son of Squire Allworthy's sister and Blifil's half-brother, Blifil's motives and stratagems are exposed, Tom is cleared of the charges against him, reconciled with Sophia, and after promising to mend his ways marries her and forgives his enemies. In Tom and his guardian. Fielding presents his concept of the ideal man, one in whom goodness and charity are combined with common sense - though this latter quality takes Tom some time to acquire. In literary tradition. Tom Jones can be seen as a 'comic epic poem in prose' similar to Don Quixote, yet as a study of 18th century morals and manners it is the literary equivalent of the remorseless paintings of Fielding's contemporary William Hogarth.