The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

 

Okay y'all! I finally finished this book! I started it around November or December of 2020 and am just now wrapping it up. I honestly thought I would never finish it! It just seemed to go on and on. In its defense it was a good read. It was just a plodding read that didn't seem to know when to stop. My copy of the book is on Kindle and it doesn't give a publication date at the beginning. But I just looked it up and found that it was first published in 1749. So, why did I pick this book to read? Awhile back a friend gifted me a book entitled On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior. In it there are several books that the author explores and The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling is the first one. I determined that I would like to read all of the books that this author talks about in her book. So, here we are with Tom Jones. Like I said, I enjoyed the story. I found the humor throughout entertaining. The lessons on virtue, wisdom, prudence were fun to mine out of the characters. I think the most off-putting of the whole story was the authors insertion of commentary throughout. I believe this was part of his sense of humor(and satire), but to me it was long and tedious and unnecessary. It added length to the story that need not have been there, it took me out of the story and away from the characters which made it hard then to delve back into where they were left off in the story. While I'm sure I totally missed the author's goal in writing the book, I enjoyed the characters and was routing for Tom to get his lady-fare. Are there classics that you like? Have you read this one?