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·菲爾丁（Henry Fielding，1707年4月22日-1754年10月8日）英國小說傢，戲劇傢。其代錶作品《湯姆·瓊斯》對後世影響極大。

生平

1707年菲爾丁生於英國薩默塞特郡，就讀於伊頓公學。他的妹妹後來也成為瞭著名作傢。菲爾丁寫瞭一部浪漫小說，卻因此引起瞭官司，之後他前往倫敦繼續寫作。1728年菲爾丁前往荷蘭萊頓學習，迴到英國之後，他開始為劇院創作劇本。他當時的一些作品對當時沃爾波爾爵士領導的英國政府進行瞭辛辣的諷刺，特彆Golden Rump一劇，作傢的諷刺功力初露鋒芒，但也導緻瞭1737年政府宣布實施劇院許可證法案。

這一法案使得上演的劇本時刻受到懷疑，在舞颱上諷刺政治已經不再可能。菲爾丁因此退齣劇院，重操法律舊業。1748年他成為米德爾塞剋斯和威斯敏斯特的治安官員。