Henry Fielding was an English writer and magistrate who established the mechanisms of the modern novel. He was one of the great novelists of the 18th century. His novels, in which the author himself tells the story and controls the plot structure, are considered the first accurate portrayal of contemporary manners.
Background
Henry Fielding was born on April 22, 1707 in Sharpham Park, England, in the estate of his maternal grandfather. In 1710 the Fieldings moved to East Stour, Dorsetshire. When Henry was 11, his mother died. A suit for custody was brought by his grandmother against his charming but irresponsible father, Lt. Gen. Edmund Fielding. The settlement placed Henry in his grandmother's care, although he continued to visit his father in London.
Education
Henry was educated at Eton College, where he studied classical authors and emerged ready to tackle the literary world. In 1728 he enrolled at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, where he studied classical literature. In 1737 he began studying law at Middle Temple and was admitted to the bar in less than 3 years.
Career
Henry began writing for the theater, penning several plays during the 1730s. An outspoken young man, he bitterly criticized the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole in his plays. It is believed that the Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 was passed in response to his activities. The passage of the Act greatly restrained his creative freedom and he was no longer able to satirize political figures in his plays. Thus he left the theater and ventured into a career in law by becoming a barrister.
He never stopped writing though. He continued writing satires and also edited a thrice-weekly newspaper, the ‘Champion; or, British Mercury’, which ran from November 1739 to June 1741. He became a novelist entirely by chance. In 1740 Samuel Richardson published his story ‘Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded’, a story of a servant girl who resists her master’s efforts to seduce her and ultimately wins his heart by virtue of her morality. The book became a resounding success. Fielding, however, found the story offensive and proceeded to parody it by writing ‘An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews’, satirizing Richardson’s prudish morality.
The work was published anonymously and Fielding never claimed credit for it. But it is generally accepted that he was the author based on the writing style. He wrote another novel, ‘Joseph Andrews’ in 1742, which is counted among the first true novels in the English language. The publication of this book marked Fielding's debut as a serious novelist. The year 1743 saw the publication of ‘The History of the Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great’. In this work he drew a parallel between Walpole and Jonathan Wild, the infamous gang leader and highwayman, comparing the Whig party in Parliament with a gang of thieves being run by Walpole. By the mid-1740s he had gained much fame as a satirist, and he published ‘Tom Jones’ in 1749. A picaresque novel, it depicts the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives in a corrupt society. The lengthy novel of 346, 747 words was received with enthusiasm by the general public of the time, and is considered Fielding's greatest book.
During the 1740s, he was appointed justice of the peace for Westminster and then magistrate of Middlesex. Deeply committed to fighting crime, he collaborated with his younger half-brother John and helped to form the Bow Street Runners in 1749. The Bow Street Runners have been called London's first professional police force, and Fielding and John are credited to be two of the best magistrates in 18th-century London. In January 1752, Fielding started a fortnightly periodical titled ‘The Covent-Garden Journal’, under the pseudonym of "Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great Britain”. The same year he published a treatise ‘Examples of the interposition of Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder’. Fielding died in Lisbon on October 8, 1754, and was buried in the English cemetery there.
Fielding then published Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder (1752), a treatise in which he rejected the deistic and materialistic visions of the world in favour of belief in God's presence and divine judgement, arguing that the murder rate was rising due to neglect of the Christian religion.
Politics
Special power of his satire reached political comedy "Don Quixote in England" and "Pasquino". These plays are directed against the socio-political system in England. By virtue of their contained satire and pathos, they are close to civil works of Swift.
Personality
Fielding was a humane and witty man, with a passion for reform and justice. In a corrupt and callous society he became noted for his impartial judgments, incorruptibility, and compassion for those whom social inequities had forced into crime. That he was always profuse, sanguine and more or less improvident, is as probable as that he was always manly, generous and sympathetic.
Connections
In 1734 Fielding married Charlotte Cradock. They had five children together. Their only daughter Henrietta died at age 23. His beloved wife died two years later. Her death was such a shock to Henry that his friends feared for his reason. In 1747 he married Mary Daniel, his first wife's servant; their grief over her death had drawn them together. The couple had five children.