Henry Fielding

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Henry Fielding bigraphy, stories - English novelist, dramatist

Henry Fielding : biography

22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754

Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones.

Aside from his literary achievements, he has a significant place in the history of law-enforcement, having founded (with his half-brother John) what some have called London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners, using his authority as a magistrate. His younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer.

Partial list of works

  • The Masquerade – a poem (Fielding’s first publication)
  • Love in Several Masques – play, 1728
  • Rape upon Rape – play, 1730. Adapted by Bernard Miles as Lock Up Your Daughters! in 1959, filmed in 1974
  • The Temple Beau – play, 1730
  • The Author’s Farce – play, 1730
  • The Letter Writers – play, 1731
  • The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great – play, 1731
  • Grub-Street Opera – play, 1731
  • The Modern Husband – play, 1732
  • The Lotterry – play, 1732
  • The Covent Garden Tragedy – play, 1732
  • The Miser – play, 1732
  • The Intriguing Chambermaid – play, 1734
  • Pasquin – play, 1736
  • Eurydice Hiss’d – play, 1737
  • The Historical Register for the Year 1736 – play, 1737
  • An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews – novel, 1741
  • The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr. Abraham Abrams – novel, 1742
  • The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great – novel, 1743, ironic treatment of Jonathan Wild, the most notorious underworld figure of the time. Published as Volume 3 of Miscellanies.
  • Miscellanies – collection of works, 1743, contained the poem Part of Juvenal’s Sixth Satire, Modernized in Burlesque Verse
  • The Female Husband or the Surprising History of Mrs Mary alias Mr George Hamilton, who was convicted of having married a young woman of Wells and lived with her as her husband, taken from her own mouth since her confinement – pamphlet, fictionalized report, 1746
  • The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling – novel, 1749
  • A Journey from this World to the Next – 1749
  • Amelia – novel, 1751
  • The Covent Garden Journal – periodical, 1752
  • Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon – travel narrative, 1755
  • The Fathers: Or, the Good-Natur’d Man. – Play, first published in 1778

The law: jurist and magistrate

Despite this scandal, his consistent anti-Jacobitism and support for the Church of England led to him being rewarded a year later with the position of London’s Chief Magistrate, and his literary career went from strength to strength. Joined by his younger half-brother John, he helped found what some have called London’s first police force, the Bow Street Runners, in 1749.

According to the historian G. M. Trevelyan, they were two of the best magistrates in eighteenth-century London, and did a great deal to enhance the cause of judicial reform and improve prison conditions. His influential pamphlets and enquiries included a proposal for the abolition of public hangings. This did not, however, imply opposition to capital punishment as such—as evident, for example, in his presiding in 1751 over the trial of the notorious criminal James Field, finding him guilty in a robbery and sentencing him to hang. Despite being now blind, John Fielding succeeded his older brother as Chief Magistrate and became known as the ‘Blind Beak’ of Bow Street for his ability to recognise criminals by their voice alone..

In January 1752, Fielding started a biweekly periodical titled The Covent-Garden Journal, which he would publish under the pseudonym of "Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great Britain" until November of the same year. In this periodical, Fielding directly challenged the "armies of Grub Street" and the contemporary periodical writers of the day in a conflict that would eventually become the Paper War of 1752–3.