Tom Jones
Henry Fielding · 1707–1754 · England
Why it matters
A foundling of good heart and worse judgment stumbles across a teeming, bawdy England toward his true parentage. Fielding's comic epic, narrated by a wry, meddling author, gave the novel a formal confidence English fiction hadn't yet claimed.
At a glance
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Difficulty 5/10fast pace890 pagesLong, but the intruding comic narrator keeps the plot's machinery legible.
Deep dive
How an intrusive, wisecracking narrator turns a foundling's misadventures into an argument for the novel itself as a serious literary form.
Where to go next
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