Criticism Of Henry Fielding

First published in 1970, this selection of Fielding’s criticism is an important contribution to our understanding of Fielding and his age. It directs considerable light upon Fielding’s own critical views, with regard both to his own works and to eighteenth-century life and literature at large. The volume includes many of Fielding’s well-known and important statements on literature, society and morals, as well as many which are now difficult to obtain. The selection presents the full range of Fielding’s criticism, showing the relations between his statements concerning literature and his opinions on other matters, and drawing on the complete body of his work. The editor has provided a large-scale analytical introduction.

The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read the material themselves.

Fielding himself frequently stated that satire was his aim. Taking this statement as his point of departure, the author considers Fielding's criticism of men & manners, his attitude towards & his treatment of the literature, the politics, the learned professions, & the social conditions of his day.

A collection of eleven critical essays on the eighteenth-century writer, arranged in chronological order of their original publication.