Tom Jones , by Henry Fielding , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics :

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. 0in 0in 0pt">Reacting against the sentimentality and moralism of the earliest English novels, Henry Fielding chose to create a work whose main character contains all the complexities of a real human being: the foundling Tom Jones. Tom has been raised by the Squire Allworthy to love virtue, and he truly wants to do good. But Tom’s inability to control his temper and his hearty appetite for food, drink, and the opposite sex get him kicked out of Allworthy’s estate and separated from his one real love, Sophia Western. So he begins a journey from the English countryside to the teeming city of London. Along the way he meets a parade of colorful characters, enjoys a series of bawdy, comic adventures, eventually discovers his true parentage, triumphs over the villainous Blifil, and rejoins the beautiful Sophia.

Soon after its 1749 publication, Tom Jones was condemned for being lewd,” and even blamed for several earthquakes. But what really riled its critics was its supremely funny satirical attack on eighteenth-century British society and its follies and hypocrisies which, of course, are very much like our own.

Ross Hamilton is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Barnard College, where he specializes in eighteenth-century and romantic literature. His book, The Shock of Experience: A Literary History of Accident , is forthcoming.

亨利·菲尔丁（Henry Fielding，1707年4月22日-1754年10月8日）英国小说家，戏剧家。其代表作品《汤姆·琼斯》对后世影响极大。

生平

1707年菲尔丁生于英国萨默塞特郡，就读于伊顿公学。他的妹妹后来也成为了著名作家。菲尔丁写了一部浪漫小说，却因此引起了官司，之后他前往伦敦继续写作。1728年菲尔丁前往荷兰莱顿学习，回到英国之后，他开始为剧院创作剧本。他当时的一些作品对当时沃尔波尔爵士领导的英国政府进行了辛辣的讽刺，特别Golden Rump一剧，作家的讽刺功力初露锋芒，但也导致了1737年政府宣布实施剧院许可证法案。

这一法案使得上演的剧本时刻受到怀疑，在舞台上讽刺政治已经不再可能。菲尔丁因此退出剧院，重操法律旧业。1748年他成为米德尔塞克斯和威斯敏斯特的治安官员。