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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #6593.
The work is a comic, eighteenth‑century novel that treats the growth of a young man from foundling to adult through a series of witty observations on love, marriage, and social ambition. It opens with a mock‑scholarly “chapter xi” that catalogs the rules of falling in love, contrasting the fickle attractions of teenage girls with the more serious, purposeful passions of women in their forties. The narrator then introduces Miss Bridget, whose affection for a plain, hulking captain defies conventional standards of beauty, and proceeds to describe the careful, almost theatrical courtship that leads to their secret marriage. The passage is rich in satirical commentary on fashion, class, and the mechanics of consent, setting the stage for a story that blends humor with a study of identity and the circumstances of a foundling’s rise in English society.
Written in Henry Fielding’s distinctive, brisk prose, the novel combines a lively, ironic voice with the rhetorical flourishes of a pamphleteer‑satirist. Its humor rests on exaggerated character sketches, elaborate metaphors, and a playful mock‑seriousness that will appeal to readers who enjoy sharp social satire, spirited debates on gender and class, and the lively pacing of a bildungsroman. Those who appreciate the wit of 18th‑century English literature, as well as anyone interested in a humorous exploration of love, identity, and the fortunes of a foundling, will find this book engaging.
The opening · free to read
Chapter xi -- Containing many rules, and some examples, concerning falling in love: descriptions of beauty, and other more prudential inducements to matrimony.
Chapter xii -- Containing what the reader may, perhaps, expect to find in it.
Chapter xiii -- Which concludes the first book; with an instance of ingratitude, which, we hope, will appear unnatural.
BOOK II -- CONTAINING SCENES OF MATRIMONIAL FELICITY IN DIFFERENT DEGREES OF LIFE; AND VARIOUS OTHER TRANSACTIONS DURING THE FIRST TWO YEARS AFTER THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN CAPTAIN BLIFIL AND MISS BRIDGET ALLWORTHY.
Chapter i -- Showing what kind of a history this is; what it is like, and what it is not like.
Chapter ii -- Religious cautions against showing too much favour to bastards; and a great discovery made by Mrs Deborah Wilkins.
Chapter iii -- The description of a domestic government founded upon rules directly contrary to those of Aristotle.
Chapter iv -- Containing one of the most bloody battles, or rather duels, that were ever recorded in domestic history.
Chapter v -- Containing much matter to exercise the judgment and reflection of the reader.
Chapter vi -- The trial of Partridge, the schoolmaster, for incontinency; the evidence of his wife; a short reflection on the wisdom of our law; with other grave matters, which those will like best who understand them most.
Chapter vii -- A short sketch of that felicity which prudent couples may extract from hatred: with a short apology for those people who overlook imperfections in their friends.
Chapter viii -- A receipt to regain the lost affections of a wife, which hath never been known to fail in the most desperate cases.
Chapter ix -- A proof of the infallibility of the foregoing receipt, in the lamentations of the widow; with other suitable decorations of death, such as physicians, &c., and an epitaph in the true stile.
BOOK III -- CONTAINING THE MOST MEMORABLE TRANSACTIONS WHICH PASSED IN THE FAMILY OF MR ALLWORTHY, FROM THE TIME WHEN TOMMY JONES ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF FOURTEEN, TILL HE ATTAINED THE AGE OF NINETEEN. IN THIS BOOK THE READER MAY PICK UP SOME HINTS CONCERNING THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.
Chapter i -- Containing little or nothing.
Chapter ii -- The heroe of this great history appears with very bad omens. A little tale of so LOW a kind that some may think it not worth their notice. A word or two concerning a squire, and more relating to a gamekeeper and a schoolmaster.
Chapter iii -- The character of Mr Square the philosopher, and of Mr Thwackum the divine; with a dispute concerning----
Chapter v. -- The opinions of the divine and the philosopher concerning the two boys; with some reasons for their opinions, and other matters.
Chapter vi -- Containing a better reason still for the before-mentioned opinions.
Chapter vii -- In which the author himself makes his appearance on the stage.
Chapter viii -- A childish incident, in which, however, is seen a good-natured disposition in Tom Jones.
Chapter ix -- Containing an incident of a more heinous kind, with the comments of Thwackum and Square.
Chapter x -- In which Master Blifil and Jones appear in different lights.
BOOK IV -- CONTAINING THE TIME OF A YEAR.
Chapter i -- Containing five pages of paper.
Chapter ii -- A short hint of what we can do in the sublime, and a description of Miss Sophia Western.
Chapter iii -- Wherein the history goes back to commemorate a trifling incident that happened some years since; but which, trifling as it was, had some future consequences.
Chapter iv -- Containing such very deep and grave matters, that some readers, perhaps, may not relish it.
Chapter v -- Containing matter accommodated to every taste.
Chapter vi -- An apology for the insensibility of Mr Jones to all the charms of the lovely Sophia; in which possibly we may, in a considerable degree, lower his character in the estimation of those men of wit and gallantry who approve the heroes in most of our modern comedies.
Chapter vii -- Being the shortest chapter in this book.
Chapter viii -- A battle sung by the muse in the Homerican style, and which none but the classical reader can taste.
Chapter ix -- Containing matter of no very peaceable colour.
Chapter x -- A story told by Mr Supple, the curate. The penetration of Squire Western. His great love for his daughter, and the return to it made by her.
Chapter xi -- The narrow escape of Molly Seagrim, with some observations for which we have been forced to dive pretty deep into nature.
Chapter xii -- Containing much clearer matters; but which flowed from the same fountain with those in the preceding chapter.
Chapter xiii -- A dreadful accident which befel Sophia. The gallant behaviour of Jones, and the more dreadful consequence of that behaviour to the young lady; with a short digression in favour of the female sex.
Chapter xiv -- The arrival of a surgeon.--His operations, and a long dialogue between Sophia and her maid.
BOOK V -- CONTAINING A PORTION OF TIME SOMEWHAT LONGER THAN HALF A YEAR.
Chapter i -- Of the SERIOUS in writing, and for what purpose it is introduced.
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