Fielding in the dock
Claude Rawson, 5 April 1990
Henry Fielding: A Life
by Martin Battestin and Ruthe Battestin.
Routledge, 738 pp., £29.50, October 1989,0 415 01438 7 Show More
by Martin Battestin and Ruthe Battestin.
Routledge, 738 pp., £29.50, October 1989,
New Essays
by Henry Fielding, edited by Martin Battestin.
Virginia, 604 pp., $50, November 1989,0 8139 1221 0 Show More
by Henry Fielding, edited by Martin Battestin.
Virginia, 604 pp., $50, November 1989,
The Wesleyan Edition of the Works of Henry Fielding. The True Patriot, and Related Writings
edited by W.B. Coley.
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edited by W.B. Coley.
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An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, and Related Writings
edited by Malvin Zirker.
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edited by Malvin Zirker.
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The Covent-Garden Journal and A Plan of the Universal Register Office
by Henry Fielding, edited by Bertrand Goldgar.
Oxford, 446 pp., £50, December 1988,0 19 818511 1 Show More
by Henry Fielding, edited by Bertrand Goldgar.
Oxford, 446 pp., £50, December 1988,
Fielding and the Woman Question: The Novels of Henry Fielding and the Feminist Debate 1700-1750
by Angela Smallwood.
Harvester, 230 pp., £35, March 1989,0 7108 0639 6 Show More
by Angela Smallwood.
Harvester, 230 pp., £35, March 1989,
“... Fielding was born in 1707 into a family in straitened circumstances but of aristocratic connections. A family myth, based on forged papers, claimed descent from the Hapsburgs. The combination of financial embarrassment and gentlemanly caste is emblematic of the whole atmosphere of his life, and is variously reflected in his writings. He turned to writing fiction for a living (and to practising law for the same reason) after his career as a prominent and successful dramatist was ended by the Licensing Act of 1737, which his own anti-Government plays helped to precipitate, and which remained in force until 1968 (in later years it functioned more as an instrument of moral than of political censorship ... ”
