Life of Henry Fielding

Ronald Paulson is professor of English at John Hopkins University. He is both a major authority on Henry Fielding and one of the world's leading scholars of eighteenth-century literary and artistic culture. His recent books include The Beautiful, Novel and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy (!995) and Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter (1998).

• List of Illustrations. Preface.1. Student, 1707-1730.Chronology.Early Life.Literary Apprenticeship.2. Playwright, 1730-1737.Chronology.Author of Farce and Comedy.Libertine and Freethinker.3. Hackney Writer and Barrister, 1737-1741.Chronology.Essayist.Experiments in Prose and Poetry.4. Author of Joseph Andrews, 1741-1742.Chronology.Anti-Pamela: Character and Action.The Man in the Work.5. Author of Tom Jones, 1742-1748.Chronology.Man of Letters.Attorney for the Defense.Patriot and Historian.6. Magistrate, 1748-1754.Chronology.Reformer.Author of Amelia.Autobiography.In the Wake of Amelia.Retirement and Death.Notes.Bibliography.Index.

"With its generous fomat and heavyweight line-up of contributors, the Blackwell Critical Biographies series has developed into an impressive body of biographical and critical appraisals, and The Life of Henry Fielding is a powerful addition." Review of English Studies "Instead of dwelling on the life, Paulson (John Hopkins Univ.) provides learned and sensitive readings of all of Fielding's major works and many minor ones." "The comments on Fielding's attitudes toward deism and his relationship with William Hogarth are valuable. The scholarship is admirably thorough." "Recommended for collections serving upper-division undergraduates and above." Choice