This document provides biographical information about English novelist Henry Fielding and summarizes his most notable works and contributions to the development of the novel form. It notes that Fielding published influential picaresque novels like Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones in the mid-1700s. The document highlights how Fielding established plot construction, characterization techniques, and realistic depictions of common life that helped establish the modern novel. It concludes that Fielding is considered the "father of the English novel" for devising theories that revolutionized the novel genre.

1. Henry Fielding as a Novelist
Bharat Bhammar
Roll No : 05 Semester : 1 Year : 2013-14
Paper 2 : The Neo-Classical Literature
Submitted to:
Smt. S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M.K. Bhav. University
Henry Fielding as a Novelist
Sanjay Jogadiya
Roll No : 34 Semester : 1 Year : 2019-20
Paper 2 : The Neo-Classical Literature
Submitted to:
Smt. S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M.K. Bhav. University

2. Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
•DEATH DATE:-October 8, 1754
•PLACE OF BIRTH:-Sharpham Park,
Somerset,England.
•EDUCATION:-University of Leiden,
Eton College
•Symbol:-Father of English Novelist.
•Death:-8 October,1754.
•PLACE OF DEATH:-Lisbon, Portugal.

3. His Exceptional Works:
• Joseph Andrews:
It Published in 1742.
It is a picaresque novel
•Amelia:
This is a Sentimental
Novel, Which published
in December 1751.
Amelia follows the life
of Amelia and William
Booth.

4. •Tom Jones: (1749).
It is a Picaresque novel, Which
contains 18 books.
The main theme of this Novel is
the contrast between Tom
Jones’s good nature
•Jonathan Wild: (1743)
“Jonathan Wild the great, after all
his mighty exploits, was, what so few
GREAT men can accomplish hanged
by the neck till he was dead”

5. Father of novelist
•Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Stern are known as the
four wheels of the novel. Of them, Fielding's contribution
to the English novel is significant. no one deserves to be
called the father of an English novel.
•It is the fielding that gave the English novel a definite look
and feel. He devised the theory of novel writing. He has
made an invaluable contribution to the development of
plot construction and characterization. He made the novel
an effective weapon of social criticism.
•For this reason, Sir Walter Scott correctly called him the
father of an English novel.

6. Graphs in Literature:
Graph before Fielding did not hold much importance. But
Fielding revolutionized the concept of graph construction.
•The graph of 'Tom Jones' is one of the three best graphs ever
planned.
•Thus a well-organized graph is one of the main contributions
of Fielding.
•Comic Epic in Prose: Another contribution of Fielding is his
concept of the novel as a comic epic in prose. He formulated
the theory of novel in his prefaces of Joseph Andrews.
•A heroic epic has a conspicuous hero, grand theme, a
continuous action, a journey to the underworld, wars,
digressions, discovery, high seriousness, a high moral lesson
and bombastic diction in it.
•He depicted their lives in all its authenticity.

7. Characterization:
•Fielding is the creator of the novel of character.
He breathed life into his characters.
•He peopled the novel with a great crowd of lively and
interesting characters. Like Shakespeare, he portrays all kind
of human characters as real human beings.
Realism:
•Fielding is the first realist of the English novel. Common life is
the material of his novels.
•His realism is epical in its range. Thus Fielding is the founder
of the modern realistic novel.

8. Humour:
•His humor is exuberant, spontaneous, tolerant and genial.
•He lashes out his satire at affectation, vanity, pedantry,
hypocrisy, and vice. But he is always human and humane.
• The irony is a great weapon of his satire. All the great
humorists are influenced by Fielding.
Other Reasons: Fielding is champion in so many other
respects. His great contribution is the localization of the
scene. He gives graphic details of Tom's journey to London
on the highways. His novels are thoroughly English. His
dialogues are lively as well as natural. He was a superb
craftsman. His art of narration is praiseworthy. He brought a
healthy moral vision.

9. Legacy
•Sir Walter Scott called Henry Fielding the “father of the
English novel,” and the phrase still indicates Fielding’s place in
the history of literature.
•Although not the first English novelist, in fact, he was the
first to approach the genre with a fully functional theory of
the novel; who modern critics call the comic epic, epic, and
home-made epic,
•He established the tradition of reality presented in a
comprehensive survey of contemporary society that
dominated English stories until then. The end of the 19th
century.