English Literature / Unit 11 ENL 1015 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones
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The idea
Henry Fielding, a playwright turned novelist, parodied Pamela in Shamela and in Joseph Andrews, of seventeen forty-two, which he called a "comic epic poem in prose." Tom Jones, of seventeen forty-nine, follows a good-hearted foundling, with Fielding himself as a commenting narrator.
In practice
Comic epic in prose, an intrusive narrator.
Where people slip
Fielding answered Richardson by parody.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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