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Definition: Fielding, Henry from Philip's Encyclopedia

English novelist and playwright. During the 1730s, he wrote a number of satirical plays, such as Pasquin (1736). His first work of fiction, An Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews (1741), was a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740). Joseph Andrews (1742) was his first novel. His masterpiece is the picaresque novel Tom Jones (1749). Fielding was responsible for the foundation of Britain's first organized police force, the Bow Street Runners.

Fielding, Henry

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
English novelist. His greatest work, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) (see Tom Jones ), which he described as ‘a comic epic poem in prose’, was an early landmark in the development of the English novel, realizing for the first time in English the form's potential for memorable characterization, coherent plotting, and perceptive analysis. The vigour of its comic impetus, descriptions of high and low life in town and country, and its variety of characters made it immediately popular. Fielding gave a new prominence to dialogue in his work. Fielding was born at Sharpham Park in Somerset and educated at Eton. He moved to London in 1724 where he led a dissipated life for some years before beginning his dramatic career with Love in Several Masques (1728). The play was not a success and Fielding swapped London for the Netherlands, where he studied at the University of Leiden. Returning to England a year later, Fielding began writing again, publishing several comedies and farces, …
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Full text Article Fielding, Henry

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
The self-proclaimed founder of a “new Province of Writing,” Fielding attained wide popularity as a manly novelist, the antithesis of his sentimental contemporary, Samuel RICHARDSON . Eclipsed after the late 1980s by Richardson, Fielding now enjoys a resurgence of critical attention for his theory of…
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Full text Article Fielding, Henry

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article Henry Fielding (1707–1754)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
He employed his Wit to the noblest Purposes, in ridiculing as well Superstition in Religion as infidelity, and several Errors and immortalities which sprung from time to time in his Age; and lastly, in the Defence of his Country, against several pernicious schemes of wicked Politicians. Obituary…
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Full text Article SCHOOL

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
[On boarding schools] This curious, and, to my mind, objectionable feature of English education was maintained solely in order that parents could get their children out of the house. CLARK, Lord Kenneth Another Part of the Wood (1974). The most strenuous efforts of the most committed educationalists…
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Full text Article GREATNESS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The age of great men is going; the epoch of the ant-hill, of life in multiplicity, is beginning. AMIEL, Henri-Frédéric Journal , 1851. Mrs Asquith remarked indiscreetly that if Kitchener was not a great man, he was, at least, a great poster. In Magnus, Sir Philip , Kitchener: Portrait of an…
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Full text Article ENVY

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end. BEERBOHM, Sir Max Zuleika Dobson (1911). Through envy of the devil came death into the world. THE BIBLE ; Apocrypha, Wisdom of Solomon, 2:24. Had I been in anything inferior to him, he would not…
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Full text Article TRUST

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Trust in Allah, but tie your camel. [Old Muslim Proverb] Never trust anyone who wears a beard, a bow tie, two-toned shoes, sandals or sunglasses. CAINE, Michael The Times , 1992; quoting his father. It is very true that we seldom confide in those who are better than ourselves. CAMUS, Albert The Fall…
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Full text Article FOOLISHNESS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
There’s a sucker born every minute. [Attr.] [On receiving a note containing only one word:‘Fool’] I have known many an instance of a man writing a letter and forgetting to sign his name, but this is the only instance I have ever known of a man signing his name and forgetting to write the letter. …
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Full text Article NATURE

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. THE BIBLE , Genesis, 8:22. Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God. BROWNE, Sir Thomas Religio Medici…
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Full text Article JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The price of justice is eternal publicity. BENNETT, Arnold Things That Have Interested Me . [Discussing the rising costs of going to law] We cannot for ever be content to acknowledge that in England justice is open to all – like the Ritz Hotel. BINGHAM, Sir Thomas Independent on Sunday , 1994. …
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