Fiction: Tom Jones

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Author: Henry Fielding
Genre: Fiction//Classics-Comedy

This story is hilarious. It was in 1749, and still is in 2009.

Tom Jones, a bastard, is found as a baby by the charitable and well-named Squire Allworthy, and is raised as his own son alongside his cousin Blifil, who feels jealous and upstaged by Jones, despite being more knowledgeable in the education of the philosophical and religious tutors. Jones grows to be a kind and amiable young man, but one suffered weaknesses for wine and women; but, he desperately wants to be a virtuous citizen, and his virtues outweigh his vices. He falls in love with a neighboring girl, Sophia Western. However, Jones' status as a bastard prevents any hopes of marriage, and Sophia's father and aunt instead try to get her married to Blifil.

Jones comes into trouble after sleeping with a girl and getting into a fist-fight with Blifil and his tutors, and is disowned by Allworthy (after some coaxing lies by Blifil) and is sent into the real world to make his own way. Sophia, frightened at the idea of marrying a villain like Blifil, escapes with her maid. Both young adults go about separate journeys and meet an array of colorful characters. When poor Sophia seems to escape the marriage proposal of Blifil, one of her relatives tries to throw a well-to-do lord on her; no one seems to care about her opinion or who she wants. All the while, her despicable father chases after her in an effort to force her into marrying Blifil by any means necessary.

After Jones picks up company with the comically-pathetic Partridge (who Allworthy is convinced is Jones' father), he saves a distressed woman named Mrs. Waters from death. She is so mesmerized by the youth, she seduces him into her bed; unfortunately, Sophia happened upon the same inn, and hearing of Jones' lack of fidelity, renounces him and leaves for London. The rest of the book surrounds Jones and his desperate attempts to find and win back Sophia - but not before sleeping with one of her relatives - and triumph with mercy over his adversaries. Along the way, he helps every person in distress, from giving a highway robber money for his family to getting his friend Nightingale to take responsibility and marry the woman he got pregnant. In the end - which includes the (Freud-approved) shocking reveal that Mrs. Waters might be Jones' mother - the titular character learns of his parentage, is reunited with Squire Allworthy, and pleads to win back Sophia's heart.

The eighteenth century, authors had interesting fascinations with foundlings and bastards. When they weren't being vilified, they were characters of romantic fantasies, where the poor wretch in the end would discover he or she wasn't a bastard at all, but a member of a noble household; after all, only children born in wedlock could be heroes. In Fielding, you find no such disclosing of legitimacy. He astounded his past and present audience by keeping Tom Jones a bastard before and after the Big Reveal.

This admittedly-long book is a classic, and yet it does have a very modern feel to it. All of Fielding's satire directed to eighteenth century English society still rings familiar to this day. The book is full of sexual innuendos, double entendres, and that wonderful, dry British humor that so many book snobs enjoy; I also believe few books could rival how many times this one used the words "slut," "whore," and "wench." Each of the eighteen books begins with Fielding addressing his audience (though he breaks the fourth-wall often throughout the story) with mostly pointless discussions, ranging from how stupid critics are to Jacobite politics; each prologue could be ignored, but the reader would miss Fielding's lampshade-hanging that results in a burst of laughter from this particular audience member. Within the book, Fielding takes many merciless shots at hypocrites and opportunists, praising the virtue and innocence of Tom Jones, who the author believes we should emulate (minus the whoring).