The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Book 14, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The narrator believes that good writers should be familiar with the writers who came before them. They also must know about the subject they’re writing about. In England, the narrator accuses several writers of writing about the manners of upper-class life without actually knowing what it’s like to be part of the upper class. The narrator thinks it’s often not worthwhile to learn about the upper class because there is more conformity among people of the upper class and more variability among people of the lower classes. The narrator prefers to treat characters as individuals rather than having them represent some broader class of people.

Some of the context for this chapter is that Fielding was himself born into a relatively upper-class family, while some of his literary rivals like Samuel Richardson (whose novel Pamela Fielding satirized in Joseph Andrews) came from more modest backgrounds. The narrator speaks about the lower class being more interesting because they have more variety, although it’s debatable whether the novel itself reflects this view given how much time the narration spends with Sophia, one of the novel’s higher-class characters.

Active Themes

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Book 14, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis