Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding was born into a wealthy family in 1707 in Somerset, England. He was educated at Eton and went to live with his grandmother after his mother’s early death. After studying classics and law, he eventually went to work as a playwright in London. From the beginning, his works contained traces of the sarcasm and satire that would eventually go on to define his writing style, and he occasionally wrote under pseudonyms due to the controversial nature of his work. His first successful novel was called Shamela, a parody of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. He followed it with an even more successful parody of Pamela called Joseph Andrews, focusing on the adventures of Pamela’s brother Joseph, a character Fielding invented. In 1749, Fielding published Tom Jones, perhaps his most notable work, and it went on to become a major bestseller. He also had a notable influence in the legal field for his work as a magistrate. Fielding died a few years later in 1754 while seeking treatment for his poor health in Lisbon, Portugal.