The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling / Edition 1

by Henry Fielding, Martin C. Battestin, Fredson Bowers

Overview

The Wesleyan edition of Tom Jones is widely acknowledged as the best available, and this new paperback reproduces the handsomely composed text and notes of that edition. A new Critical Introduction, a brief chronology of Fielding’s life, and a selected bibliography of relevant criticism especially designed for student use have been added. The map – “A Geography of Tom Jones” – has been retained, while the General and Textual Introduction and six bibliographical Appendices of the two volume clothbound edition have been omitted.

“This edition offers a critical unmodernized text of Tom Jones. The text is critical in that it has been established by application of analytical criticism to the evidence of the various documentary forms in which the novel has appeared. It is unmodernized in that every effort has been made to present the text in as close a form to Fielding’s own inscription and final revision as the surviving documents permit, subject only to normal editorial regulations.”
- from the Textual Introduction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819560483
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1975
Series:	Wesleyan Edition of the Works of Henry Fielding Series
Edition description:	1st American pbk. ed
Pages:	1023
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) began his career as a novelist in 1740 with Shamela (written as a negative response to Richardson's Pamela). The following year, he published Joseph Andrews, with which he anticipates his masterpiece, Tom Jones. His final work, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, was published posthumously in 1755. Thomas Keymer is Elmore Fellow and Tutor in English at St Anne's College, Oxford. His books include Sterne, the Moderns, and the Novel (2002), and co-edited with John Mee, The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830 (2004).

Alice Wakely completed a doctoral dissertation on Samuel Richardson at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is currently at the University of York.

Thomas Keymer is Elmore Fellow and Tutor in English at St Anne's College, Oxford. His books include Richardson's Clarissa and the 18th Century Reader (1992), Sterne, the Moderns, and the Novel (2002), and co-edited with John Mee, The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1740-1830 (2004). Alice Wakely completed a doctoral dissertation on Samuel Richardson at Magdalen College, Oxford and is currently at the University of York. The editors have previously collaborated on the OUP World's Classics edition of Richardson's Pamela (2001).

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling: Dedication
Contents
Text
Appendices: Chronology of Important Dates
Select Bibliography
Index to Corrections
The Geography of Tom Jones (map)

Editorial Reviews

“Perhaps all we have a right to expect from a conscientious editor is a well-written rehash of what others have already said. But this is not all that we are here given . . . Professor] Battestin can repeatedly correct the record by drawing upon the work of modern scholars… His commentary, which he supplies as notes to the text, necessarily tells us much that is well known to the specialist, but often corrects what previous editors have said and not infrequently clarifies what has never before been annotated… It is surprising that so much fresh information has been assembled for a book as well known as this.”—Fredercik W. Hilles, The Yale Review

“This edition offers a critical unmodernized text of Tom Jones. The text is critical in that it has been established by application of analytical criticism to the evidence of the various documentary forms in which the novel has appeared. It is unmodernized in that every effort has been made to present the text in as close a form to Fielding’s own inscription and final revision as the surviving documents permit, subject only to normal editorial regulations.”—The Textual Introduction

“Brave men lived before Agamemnon; and there were editions of Fielding, of a sort, before Wesleyan series began. But every previous collection is now totally supplanted . . .”—British Society for 18th Century Studies Newsletter

From the Publisher