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Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

Tom Jones

by Henry Fielding

1749

Novel

Historical

This influential English novel, one of the first to present everyday life in realistic detail, tells of the bawdy adventures of a young man, wrongly accused and much abused, in the early 18th century.

Tom Jones, a foundling, is reared by Allworthy, a wealthy Somersetshire squire. He has all the good qualities possible except prudence (which Fielding considers the supreme rational virtue) and suffers as a result; his desire to experience all that life has to offer constantly gets him into trouble, making him seem inferior to the falsely pious Blifil, Allworthy's nephew. When Jones becomes drunk celebrating Allworthy's recovery from an illness, Blifil conspires to have him expelled from the estate. Jones is thus separated from his beloved, Sophia Western, who is promised to the hated Blifil.

Setting out on the road to London, Jones is immediately robbed by Black George, whose poor family Jones has helped. This is the first of many such incidents which lead Jones, believing he has committed incest and murder, to prison to await hanging.

The novel's plot is one of the most complex ever contrived, with all the many characters and events being connected. This structure reflects Fielding's belief in the ultimate design and order of the universe. The novel's lively characters, its inventive plot, and Fielding's self-mocking digressions, however prevent the underlying moral seriousness from dominating.

The most entertaining and aesthetically pleasing of 18th century English novels, the book has had a profound influence on the development of the novel because of Fielding's ability to combine vividly drawn characters, narrative technique, and explorations of almost all areas of human interest.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Fielding, Henry. "Tom Jones." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0552.
APA 7th
Fielding, H. (2015). Tom Jones. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Fielding, Henry. "Tom Jones." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.