Tom Jones is a picaresque comic novel in which we follow the wanderings and vicissitudes of the engaging hero as he, born illegitimate, grows up, falls in love, is unjustly expelled from his foster-father’s home, and roams England. Warmhearted but impetuous, Tom is repeatedly involved in fights, misunderstandings, and bawdy adventures. However, he is eventually narrowly saved from the gallows and happily united with his true love, Sophia, while his enemies are variously humiliated. This is not only a long and complicated novel but also a great one. Anticipating Dickens at the peak of his powers (Dickens reportedly said, “I have been Tom Jones”), Fielding describes, with gusto, glee, mock-heroic wit, and sometimes satiric scorn, the rich variety of life in eighteenth-century England, from the rural poor to the affluent aristocrats. Like the paintings of his friend William Hogarth, Fielding’s descriptions betray the sharp observation of a moralist who is well aware of the conflict between Christian standards, which are supposed to govern social conduct, and the competing power of selfishness, folly, and vice in the world. In the society he depicts, Good Samaritans are few and far between, and snares await the innocent at every turn. Nevertheless, like an ironic yet benevolent Providence, Fielding guides the deserving lovers through the world’s corruption to their happiness. Following the example of Chaucer, Fielding relished farcical entanglements and sexual comedy: his hero is no virgin. Fielding was a brilliant experimentalist (influencing Sterne), and Tom Jones is surprisingly postmodern: the narrator repeatedly teasingly interrupts the action to discuss with the reader the work’s progress—while critics are urged to “mind their own business.” CW