Biography

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Sir Walter Scott called Fielding ‘the father of the English novel.’ He was the first English novelist to approach the genre with a fully worked-out theory in Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones and Amelia, the comic epics or domestic epics. He established the tradition of realism presented in panoramic surveys of contemporary society that dominated English fiction until the end of the 19th century.[br /]
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He was the first writer and a novelist to break away from the epistolary method. Fielding devised a new structure and theory that laid the foundation for the works of Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and the Victorian novelists.[br /]
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At every turn in his career – as novelist, dramatist, journalist and magistrate – reader feels great directing intelligence. He was a blissful innovator, creating new ideas, forms and making practical plans. He also pushed the boundaries of artistic forms.[br /]
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He provoked the introduction of censorship in theatres with his political satire The Historical Register for 1736. He then turned to writing picaresque novels. Fielding was also responsible for the formation of the Bow Street Runners in 1749.[br /]
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[b]Chronology of Life[/b][br /]
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[b]April 22, 1707[/b] Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, Glastonbury, Somerset.[br /]
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[b]1718[/b]

His mother Sarah died.[br /]
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[b]1719-24[/b] Attended school at Eton.[br /]
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[b]1734 [/b]Married Charlotte Cradock.[br /]
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[b]1737 [/b]Stage Licensing Act ended career as playwright. [br /]

Studied law at Middle Temple.[br /]
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[b]1744 [/b]Charlotte died.[br /]
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[b]1747 [/b]Married Mary Daniel.[br /]
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[b]1748 [/b]Became Justice of Peace for Westminster.[br /]
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[b]1754 [/b]Resigned from Justice of Peace, due to ill health.[br /]
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[b]October 8, 1754[/b] Died near Lisbon in Portugal.[br /]
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[b]Chronology of Works[/b][br /]
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[b]1728 [/b]The Masquerade (first published poem) and Live in Several Masques (first play) were published.[br /]
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[b]1730 [/b]The Tragedy of Tragedies and The Grub-Street Opera were published.[br /]
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[b]1732 [/b]The Modern Husband and The Covent-Garden Tragedy were published.[br /]
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[b]1733 [/b]The Miser was published.[br /]
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[b]1736 [/b]Pasquin was published.[br /]
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[b]1737 [/b]Eurydice, The Historical Register, Eurydice Hiss’d were published.[br /]
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[b]1739-41[/b] Edited the ‘Champion’.[br /]
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[b]1741 [/b]Shamela was published.[br /]
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[b]1742 [/b]Joseph Andrews and Fall of Walpole were published.[br /]
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[b]1743 [/b]Miscellanies, 3 Volumes including Jonathan Wild and A Journey from This World to the Next were published.[br /]
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[b]1744 [/b]Preface to Sarah Fielding[br /]
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[b]1745-46[/b] Jacobite Rebellion was published. Edited ‘True Patriot’.[br /]
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[b]1747-48[/b] Edited the ‘Jocobite’s Journal'.[br /]
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[b]1749 [/b]Tom Jones was published.[br /]
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[b]1751 [/b]An Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers and Amelia were published.[br /]
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[b]1752 [/b]Edited the ‘Covent-Garden Journal’.[br /]
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[b]1754 [/b]Revised version of Jonathan Wild was published.[br /]
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[b]1755 [/b]The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon was published posthumously.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor a more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman. "[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "It is not death, but dying, which is terrible."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "There is nothing a man of good sense dreads in a wife so much as her having more sense than himself."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "It is not death, but dying, which is terrible."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Great joy, especially after a sudden change of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue."[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "All Nature wears one universal grin."[br /]

[b]Tom Thumb the Great. Act i. Sc. 1.[/b][br /]
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[b]•[/b] "When I 'm not thank'd at all, I 'm thank'd enough;[br /]

I 've done my duty, and I 've done no more.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] "Penny saved is a penny got." [br /]

[b]The Miser. Act iii. Sc. 12.[/b][br /]
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