The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (Dodo Press) [Paperback]

Henry Fielding (Author), G. H. Maynadier (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2008

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. He was born in Sharpham near Glastonbury in Somerset in 1707, and was educated at Eton College. Later he went to London where his literary career began. In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study. On his return, he began writing for the theatre, some of his work being savagely critical of the contemporary government under Sir Robert Walpole. He therefore retired from the theatre and resumed his career in law, becoming a Justice of the Peace in 1748 for Middlesex and Westminster. Fielding never stopped writing political satire and satires of current arts and letters. Amongst his works are Rape upon Rape (1730), Shamela (1741), The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling (1749) and Amelia (1751).

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About the Author

Henry Fielding, a proficient English novelist and dramatist, is famous for his humorous and satirical portrayal of characters. Writing in the eighteenth century, he is best-remembered for his political satires and comic epic poems in prose. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Dodo Press (March 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406596426
• ISBN-13: 978-1406596427
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,944,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a wolf is in a sheepfold, a great man is in society, December 12, 2005

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (Paperback)

For Henry Fielding, 'great men', like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and 'great rogues', like Jonathan Wild, are synonymous terms. Greatness consists in bringing all manners of mischief on mankind.
Alexander the Great overran a whole empire with fire and sword, pillaging, sacking, burning, enslaving and destroying millions of his fellow creatures. Julius Caesar abolished the republican liberties of his country in order to take the power into his own hands.
At the opposite side of the spectrum, Jonathan Wild was a great prig (pick-pocket), cheating the very tools who were his instruments to cheat others: 'I had rather stand at the summit of a dunghill, than at the bottom of a hill in paradise.'

For Henry Fielding, greatness rimes with ambition, lust, avarice, rapaciousness, hypocrisy, power, pride, insolence, insatiability, 'a privilege to kill, a strong temptation to do bravely ill'. Greatness is 'playing with the passions of men, to work one's own purposes out of the jealousies and apprehensions to create those great arts which the vulgar call treachery, dissembling, promising, lying, falshood, summed up in the collective name of POLLITRICKS.'
And all that for what? Not for the general good of society, but for the power and the glory of the great man himself, for the satisfaction of his vices.
The fact that 'he is hated and detested by all mankind makes him inwardly satisfied. Otherwise, why should he stand at the head of a multitude of prigs, called an army, in order to molest his neighbours, to introduce rape, rapine, bloodshed and every kind of misery on his own species, to desire maliciously to rob those subjects, to reduce them to an absolute dependence on his own will, to betray the interest of his fellow-subjects, of his brethren.'
Jonathan Wild: 'I ought rather weep with Alexander, that I have ruined not more.'

Another target of the author are the hypocritical priests: 'Life is sweet, I had rather live to eternity ... so many wallow in wealth and preferment.'
He insults the ordinary, who attends to the spiritual needs of condemned criminals; 'You are more unmerciful to me than the Judge.'

Henry Fielding's forceful diatribe against all conquerers, tyrants, pollitrickers, and vicious 'prigs' still sounds extremely modern.
He blames the majority of mankind to continue to praise the said great men.
But, 'there are still some, who view these great men with a malignant eye and dare affirm that these great men are always the most pernicious and generally the most wretched and truly contemptible of all works of creation.'

This book is a ferocious and, unfortunately, still very topical satire.
A must read.