HENRY FIELDING (1707-1754)

Fielding, a successful dramatist, lawyer and magistrate, created "comic epics in prose" that are generally considered the first modern novels in English. He considercd his masters to be Lucian, Swift arld Cervantes, and saw himself as "the founder of a new province of writing." Tom Jones, the first edition of which is shown here, was well received in its day, although some critics, including Samuel Johnson, disapproved of the hero's escapades before marriage.