From the end of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century, four brilliant pearls were born in the long river of English literature. They were Defoe (1660-1731), known for his prose, Swift (1667-1745), who excelled in satirical fiction, Richardson (also known as Richardson 1689-1761), who was known for his epistolary novels, and Henry Fielding (1707-1754), who was good at legendary novels.
Henry Fielding
Among them, in addition to Swift, the other three are also known as the three founders of the British modern novel, and the Fielding we are going to introduce today is also called the "father of the English novel" by Walter Scott (he also received the same reputation when defoe was introduced earlier). As a realistic satirist, his representative works include "The Biography of the Great Man Ganaesen Weirde" (using the life of the great thief Weirde to expose the socio-political ecology of the time, mercilessly mocking a group of politicians led by the prime minister, bluntly saying that "there is no difference between the conqueror, the absolute monarch, the prime minister and the thief"), "The history of the abandoned tom Jones" (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Jones") and so on.
Born into a shabby aristocratic family in Somerset, southwest England (a family of squires, which made him feel comfortable in his novel Jones about country life), Fielding lived an early life of affluence and later fell into a family. In 1728, he went to the University of Layton in the Netherlands to study, but after only more than a year of study, he dropped out of school due to financial constraints.
Somerset, UK
Fielding first began to create plays, which also provided nourishment and precipitation for his later novel creation. However, he made it clear that the intention of writing the play was to declare war on evil, and the theater refused to stage his work for fear of offending the powerful. Fielding was forced to organize his own theater performances, which led to his offending too many people, and eventually he was banned by the government, and his theatrical career ended.
To make ends meet, he obtained a bar's license and worked as a judge in the District of Westminster, London. This profession has given him the opportunity to visit poor and remote areas, come into contact with various people and things, and deepen his understanding of social life.
Beginning with the biography of the great man Jiang Nasheng Weilde, he devoted himself to the creation of novels, and finally exerted his literary skills to the extreme in "Jones", and "Jones" became his most famous masterpiece.
The History of Abandoned Tom Jones (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, translated by Xiao Qian and Li Congbi) is a 620,000-word masterpiece (referring to the number of Chinese characters translated), which has been called the greatest work of English literature of the 18th century. It is a great novel guided by Fielding's own theory of fiction, with careful design and a rigorous layout, divided into three scenes (countryside, post house and London), involving (but not limited to) squires, governesses, priests, tenants, servants, innkeepers, grooms, doctors, robbers, sergeants, merchants, lawyers, judges, nobles and other various characters in the society of the time.
It is a vivid animation of eighteenth-century British society, and the realistic style of realism allows Jones to break away from the tradition of medieval knightly legends representing the ideals of absolut monarchs and feudal landlords, ushering in a new era of novelism. Before introducing this work, it is necessary to say something characteristic of the novel.
Eighteenth-century picture of the English countryside
Jones is one of the culminations of eighteenth-century British realism, and it is influenced by and at the same time realism. In fact, it is only to take the novel story itself to the present, it is not new or clever, its greatness lies in its position as a pioneer, which is an unprecedented feat. Before this, no work in England had really been created under the guidance of realist theory.
The scale of this work, the magnificence of the picture, and the richness of real life reflected in it can indeed be said to be a novel epic that summarizes the social life of eighteenth-century Britain.
The rigor of the structure and layout is another feature of the novel. In this epic work, the author is quite skilled in the face of scene changes and character changes, and does not give life a sense of hardness and clumsiness. At the same time, this book can also allow the reader to naturally feel the state of orderly change in the story space, that is, from the countryside, to the journey of escape, and then to the rhythm of the city of London.
The main line of the novel is also clearly divided into four lines, namely: (1) The mystery of Tom's life as an outcast. (ii) The twists and turns that Tom and Sophia experienced from love to union. (iii) The contrast between Tom, a good-hearted and often misbehaving outcast, and Bliss, a hypocrite who is full of benevolence and morality, but has sinister intentions and is good at power. (iv) Tom's experience of hanging out with women (from the country girl Mauri to the noble lady Bellaston). (Foreword by Jones, Shanghai Translation Publishing House)
The lakeside poet Coleridge said: "In terms of artistic structure, Fielding is really a master. I dare say that Oedipus, The Alchemist, and Tom Jones are the three most flawlessly laid out works of all time. Putting down Richardson's novel to read Fielding's was like walking out of a burning ward on a breezy May day and onto an empty lawn. (Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, Table Talk, July 5, 1834.) )
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Thackeray even argues that "each plot of the book has antecedents and consequences, without contingencies, and they all contribute to the course of the story, connecting them into a whole." There has never been such a remarkable work in the history of literature (if we could use the word)." (Thackeray, William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1864, Letter to the Times, September 2, 1840.) )
Nineteenth-century British critical realist writer William Mekbius Thackeray
There are many more such compliments and compliments, and of course some of them should indeed exaggerate the layout structure of Jones, but at least from the mouths of later writers and critics, we can learn the fact that in England more than 200 years ago, Fielding's conception of this work was very clever.
The complexity and imperfection of the characters is also an important feature of the book. Fielding once said, "If you like perfect characters, there are works that satisfy your hobbies; but we have never met such a person since we were involved, and we do not want to write about him in this book." This view is not just rhetoric, and his contemporaries Richardson (as mentioned earlier, will introduce his work "Pamela" in the future) published his masterpiece Pamela in 1740, and Fielding, disgusted by his hypocritical and imperfect moral state, wrote a novel "Charmilla" in 1741 that mocked Richardson's "Pamela", and in 1742 wrote "Joseph Andrew's Biography" to mock Richardson.
Fielding hated the perfect, fleshless "heroes" of knight legends. He believes that man is a mixture of reason and feelings, and how perfect a person can also be lost by a momentary impulse, that is, man cannot be perfect, there are always all kinds of defects and imperfections, which is a living and flexible soul. In "Jones", almost everyone has a problem except for the heroine Sophia and mrs. Miller, the lady of the London Inn.
In the movie Tom Jones, Jones and Sophia are together
The male protagonist Jones is kind and optimistic on the one hand, upright and brave, full of sympathy and concern for the people and things around him, and his love for Sophia is pure and noble. However, he fell into the lust of men and women, and from the very beginning he was pregnant with the shepherd maori (which later proved not to be his), had a one-night stand with Mrs. Waterer on the road, and when he arrived in London, he maintained an improper male and female relationship with Mrs. Bellaston. So much so that some critics (including some readers) have found Fielding's character set to be problematic.
For example, the squire Olvasui, a character whose author has just begun to spend a lot of ink and ink to praise and decorate, will also make the mistake of not being able to detect the mistake of blaming Jones.
Jones's nemesis, Young Master Brie, was polite and orderly in front of the young master, but after the people was evil and vicious, full of religious doctrines, in fact, all bad ideas.
On the one hand, the squire Weston loves his daughter and can almost say that her daughter is everything to him; on the other hand, he is vulgar and violent, arbitrary and ignorant, full of wild words, and forcibly pairs his daughter's unloving marriage, without understanding and sympathy.
Of course, there are many such examples, such as Black George, who is grateful for Jones's help on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has taken a large amount of money that Jones has lost for himself. When Jones went to jail, he said that "if Jones needs money, he is willing to pay for him."
In short, you rarely see a super perfect person, each of whom has a less nice side.
The final feature of Jones is that each volume is preceded by a prologue. They are all independent essays or essays, some discussing the characters or plots in the book, but most of them have little to do with the novel itself. Here, Fielding elaborates on some of his observations on social life and the English literary scene of the time. In the prologue, the story is temporarily interrupted, as if the stage suddenly pulls down, and the author himself appears, sometimes witty, sometimes solemnly posting a discussion. So far, this style of writing is unique in the history of fiction. Those who oppose this way of writing believe that it delays the progress of the story and destroys the reader's appreciation. The modern American critic Crane believes that "it is also permissible for fiction writers to occasionally interject, but not too much, and each volume has such a chapter, which is a formality." He also wrote: "As a study of Fielding's philosophy of art, those prologues naturally have their value. But they only occasionally played the role of a choir, and later, even the decorative role gradually became smaller. (Crane, R.S. Crane, Ancient and Modern Critics and Criticisms, Chicago 1952 edition, p. 639) It has also been suggested that this writing is detrimental to the realism of the work. (Jones, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, preface)
This strange way of writing is a very interesting thing in itself, but for myself, the more I read, because I am attracted to the story of the novel itself, the less I want to have a power outage.
In these prefaces, you'll also see some of Fielding's real-life feelings and feelings outside of the novel. For example, in the preface to the first chapter of the novel, he says, "A writer should not present himself as the host of a banquet or a philanthropist who gives up meals; he should rather regard himself as the owner of a restaurant, and he is welcome to eat whenever he pays for it." Everyone knows that in the former case, the host of the feast prepares whatever meal he is happy to prepare; even if the guests eat it tastelessly, or even very unappetizingly, it is not convenient to be picky. Moreover, no matter what the host puts on the table, they are polite and have to praise it on the surface. For a restaurant owner, that's a different story. People who spend money to eat, no matter how sophisticated the taste, how elusive, must insist on being satisfied. If they don't have everything to eat, then they think they have the right to accuse, insult, and even curse mercilessly. This is the writer who greets his patrons and friends with the attitude of a restaurant owner, and naturally gives every reader the right to be picky and comment on the food, and at the end of the book he adds, "Readers, we have now reached the last stage of this long journey." Since we have formed a travel companion for such a long time, let's get along like travel companions who ride in a stagecoach and spend a few days together. These traveling companions, though there may have been some quarrels or small quarrels between them on the road, will eventually be completely reconciled, and the last time they will step into the car happily and easily; for after this journey we may never meet again, as we did the travel companions in the car. "Like a passenger who is reluctant to say goodbye to his travel partner, the feelings are sincere and delicate, which makes people move."
Of course, the most important of these prefaces is some of his views on art, including some of the views on human nature above, as well as a small number of criticisms and ridicules of critics.
In the preface to the thirteenth volume of the book, Fielding elaborates on the conditions required for literary and artistic success:
"First of all, talent, you are a gift from Heaven. Without your Sasuke, we would have struggled in vain against the currents of nature. ”
"And you, humanity, who is almost inseparable from a true genius, give me all your love."
"Ah, then you, learning! (Without your Sasuke, talent wouldn't have produced anything pure or correct.) Please guide me in this pen as well. ”
"Finally, there is the experience. You have long known intelligent, kind, learned, and cultured people. But it's not just these people, you know all kinds of people, from the ministers who meet their subordinates in the early morning to the servants who detain creditors, from the duchess at the afternoon tea party to the lady behind the hotel counter. It is only through you that we can learn about human habits. In this regard, a pedant who does not care about the world, no matter how talented and knowledgeable he is, is not allowed to enter. ”
Having said all that, let's talk about the story itself.
The squire Olwasui is widowed in middle age and lives with his unmarried sister. One night, he found an abandoned baby in his bed, our protagonist, Tom Jones.
Jones grew up to be beautiful and handsome, and almost everyone who saw him would unconsciously praise him. This sunny big boy is optimistic, open-minded, compassionate, and often helps those around him. He had a bad relationship with his younger brother, Young Master Brifie (Olvassui's sister later married and having a child with a lieutenant named Bullifer, who Jones eventually proved to be the daughter of the squire's sister) and his two governesses (one teaching learning and one teaching religion). Bliffy is a man who is polite and dignified on the surface, but in fact he is duplicitous and evil.
Jones fell in love with Sophia, the daughter of his neighbor, the squire of Weston, a girl who was not only superior in appearance, but also morally and knowledgeable, and well-known in the local area, and her education was given by her aunt, who had lived at the court. But the aunt obeyed the etiquette and always hoped that Sophia could marry into the magnate and illuminate the lintel.
Sophia's father, on the other hand, was a rude and violent squire who was passionate about hunting and loving his daughter (sorry, but it really could be considered a hobby of his), who hated the nobility and hated the tedious etiquette, (for which the two brothers and sisters did not quarrel less) wanted to marry his daughter to Young Master Brifi.
Jones, who was deeply in love with Sophia, made the shepherd girl Mao Li pregnant (it later turned out not to be his), and young master Bliffy, because of jealousy (his love with Sophia) and his desire to monopolize all the family wealth, went to court in front of Olvasui, and As a result, Jones was thrown out of the house. Sophia, unable to bear the departure of her lover and the persecution of her family (married to Bliffy), also fled her hometown and came to London.
Jones encounters all kinds of characters along the way, and also sees all kinds of new and strange things, of course, his own indulgent lust makes him make a big mistake, and this is just discovered by Sophia, who has arrived, and the contradiction between the two has intensified.
Sophia, who finally arrived in London, lived in the home of a relative named Madame Bellaston, and this noble lady behaved debauchery after the widowhood, dragging men everywhere, and after seeing Jones who came to London to look for Sophia, she was attracted by his beauty and established an improper relationship between men and women with him...
There are also many interesting stories that need to be explored by the readers themselves!
Because of the rebellion and boldness of the depiction of "The History of the Abandoned Tom Jones", it was immediately besieged by some conservative newspapers in Britain at that time after its publication, and was accused of subversion of religion and morality.
The nineteenth-century decadent writer de Quincy (1785-1859) protested: "Fielding pioneered a bad practice of deliberately slandering the gentry class of our country." ”
In his "dedication" to this book, Fielding speaks of his two intentions in writing The History of the Abandoned Tom Jones—in fact, both positive and negative aspects of the same intention: (i) "to show the simple beauty of morality in order to make people yearn for it." (ii) In order to show that "the unjust grasping itself is often worthless, and the means used are not only despicable and filthy, but also extremely unreliable and always precarious."
So from the core, the author may want to tell us how to conform to virtue and how to rebuke immorality beyond virtue.