Customer Reviews

Tom Jones (Oxford World's Classics)

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There are a great deal of very big books that aren't worth the effort. Actually there are a great deal of short books that aren't worth the effort. This book is not only huge, it's also a very slow read. The first few hundred pages alone are a bit of a slog as Fielding feels the need to explain every single attitude and scandal that went into the creation of Tom Jones - adopted son of the rather obviously named Allworthy.

HOwever, the slowness becomes a virtue as you want to live in Fielding's world after a time. Tom Jones is in love with Sophia, the neighboring squire's daughter and since he's the bastard son of a vanished serving girl he doesn't have a chance. So in true double standard, he charms and seduces women throughout the countryside, all the while trying to get with Sophia who is fleeing from an arranged marriage with Jones' adopted cousin.

There is a lot to recommend about this book but one of the most interesting ones is the relative standards of morality. Fielding takes a very modern view of morality in that the priests and the philosophers and the openly virtuous characters are hypocrites and creeps, whereas the randy and seducing Tom Jones is held up as the moral paradigm due to his sweet nature and ability to go out of his way for a friend or comrade. This would prove to be a controversial standard in Fielding's time and one wonders what the Victorians would have made of it, but in this era when we are almost certain that the examplars of morality (be they preachers or radical vegetarians) are actually truly horrible people (Falwell's sermons, Morrissey's animal-rights motivated racism, Catholic priest molesters,etc.) this book is almost too appropriate in speaking to our notions of decency and morality. Even though this book has an Allworthy who is truly an epitome of morality, most of the other moral characters are jerks. The anglican priest is a toady and the philsopher is an atheist moralist with just as much of a hypocritical view of the world (until he's revealed to be sleeping with a minor character and then he gets over himself and stops being such a creep).

All in all, this is a fine slow book that is truly worth the effort and the time. Call it the English equivalent of Don Quixote or the anti-The Da Vinci Code (which is a short book that isn't worth the hour or two it takes to read)

I've seen a lot of people telling writers to build a platform. I disagree. What they should be building is a personality.

Writing experts drone on about an author's voice. They're not wrong. But your voice is just a means to express your personality.

Misled by writers of genius like T.S. Eliot and Flaubert, some authorities stress revision. They force you to focus on smoothness of style. They want you to rewrite everything until your personality completely disappears.

That's okay if you have been writing 1,000 words a day every day for years and want to hone your technique. But first you have to discover what is in you. You have to learn how to be yourself, to cast off artifice and be completely natural.

That is very hard.

If you're not sure what a personality looks like when it's poured into a novel, you could read Tom Jones. Even if it doesn't make you a better writer, it will make you a better person.

Moral education should always be like this: ribald, riotous and fun. It's huge but it's masterly, it hits all the right spots, it teases, stimulates and satisfies. After you've reached the climax you'll want it all over again.

In case you hadn't guessed, I love it. Henry Fielding wasn't handsome but he had a big personality. This book is his platform and when you've finished reading it, it makes a good yoga brick.