Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

The English novel,the most popular and prolific of all the literary forms,first fully emerged in the 18-th century,due to writers such as Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding.The novel was to a large extend the product of the middle classes,appealing to middle class sensibility,being a patterning of imagined events set against a clearly achieved social background and taking its due from human behaviour and public attitudes.The commonly shared views between the reader and the writer were based on the idea that what was significant in life was what changed a social relationship.Thus,the novel tended towards realism and contemporaneity in the sense that it dealt with people living in the social world known to the writer.Samuel Taylor Coleridge discusses about Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson in his Biographia Literaria and he states that:"While Shakespeare darts himself forth and passes into all forms of human character and passion,Milton attracts all forms and things to himself.All things and modes of action shape themselves anew in the being of Milton,while Shakespeare becomes all things,yet for ever remaining himself.In this comparison,if this distinction is applied to the 18-th century novelists,then Fielding approximates to Shakespeare and Richardson to Milton".S.Richardson used to write "Familiar Letters" concerning the problems and circumstances of every day life which served as models to prospective correspondents.He provided ideal letters of consolation,excuses for not lending money and formal recommendations for nurses and chambermaids,but amongst these letters he included some seven letters developing the story of a virtuous servant-girl,embarrassed by the sexual attentions of her master,who finally succeeds in marrying him.Pamela or Virtue Rewarded sprang directly from these letters(the novel as such was first published in 1740) . Richardson claimed that he was writing "to the moment," that is, that Pamela's thoughts were recorded nearly simultaneously with her actions.The novel tells the story of a young maid of 16, named Pamela, whose master, Mr. B., makes unwanted advances towards her. She rejects him continually, and her virtue is eventually rewarded when he shows his sincerity by proposing an equitable marriage to her. In the second part of the novel, Pamela attempts to accommodate herself to upper-class society and to build a successful relationship with him. Richardson combined in this novel psychological analyses with realism.(It was not by chance that Pamela's master was a Justice of

Peace).Richardson intended to highlight in this novel the helplessness of the individual in front of the only potent authority.The novel also proved to be a criticism of Richardson's age and a protest in the name of religion and morality.His second novel entitled Clarissa:or,The History of a Young Lady(it was published for the first time between 1747-1749) is an epistolary novel as well,it is made up of letters of enormous length.The novel presents a fictitious world whose characters live for the pen,constantly sitting down as soon as something happens to them,to write down detailed descriptions of events and analyses.The letters contain immediacy and intensity in rendering the characters,it seems as if the characters become their own subjects of analysis.Richardson's technique has been compared with the stream-of-consciousness technique(later on used by such writers as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce) in the sense that it seems as if the reader can actually penetrate the character's mind.The letters are sent by Clarissa Harlowe to her friend Anna Howe and by the main character Richard Lovelace to his friend John Belford(so the novel has four major letter-writers).Richard Lovelace is a very intelligent man who has often been compared to Don Juan,in the sense that he becomes Clarissa's victim in the same way that she is his victim.Although it seems a psychological novel ,it is in fact a realistic one in the sense that Richardson is very much concerned with the social context.Rank and the differences of classes are very important within the novel;the relation between them is complex,reputation is generally considered the reward of a good character,but not always a guarantee of it.Prudence and virtue sometimes go together,but sometimes they can lead to separate directions.All the tests of life are public in Richardson's novels,they are carried out in the full view of society.One should not forget that the letters are used by Richardson as a means of publicizing(of making public) the character's thoughts and martyrdom would be useless if no one knew about it.Richardson's third epistolary novel is entitled The History of Sir Charles Grandison(published in 1754).Its main shortcoming lies in the character of the main protagonist,the "Good Man" about whom Richardson's friends had urged him to write.The strength of this novel lies however in its relatively fast movement and in its occasionally successful social comedy,but these are not merits which managed to redeem it in the eyes of its many detractors.While Richardson displays characters of nature and depicts the nature of life by penetrating their minds,Fielding's characters are characters of manner and they illustrate a category.Fielding was consistent with the classical tradition,avoiding an intimate approach to personality and portraying what belongs to general human nature.What is typical for Fielding is the author's commentary that lies emphasis on the artifact.Henry Fielding is considered one of the most powerful consciousnesses of his time,being a moralist and a satirist at the same time.He was the first theorist of the novel and the first who commented on the act of writing.He defined his own type of novel as the comic epic.His first novel-The

Adventures of Joseph Andrews and His Friend,Mr Abraham Adams(published in 1742) presents the same situation as in Richardson's Pamela or Virtue Rewarded,but reversed.It is a picaresque novel in which the main characters encounters a wide range of events,adventures and socially varied characters.In point of style,Fielding addresses his reader in a direct manner and unaffected style.The reader is attracted to participate in the action.Irony pervades everything and it is implicit in the author's view of life.The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great(published in 1743) represents the grimmest and most brilliant prose satire in English fiction.Its theme is greatness as conventionally interpreted.Jonathan Wild was a thief,an organizer of robberies and a racketeer,who was finally hanged,but he is presented by Fielding in terms of the utmost admiration,with emphasis on the fact that he is great,not good:"No two things can possibly be more distinct from each other,for greatness consists in bringing all manner of misbelief on mankind and goodness in removing it from them".In Fielding's presentation of Jonathan Wild,he is a kind of superman,he is beyond good and evil.The force of the novel lies in the single-mindedness with which the theme is treated and the unrelenting way in which Wild the gangster is made to stand for greatness at all levels.The most important novel in Fielding's literary career is entitled The History of Tom Jones,a Foundling(published in 1749) and it is in fact his masterpiece,built up with economy of stylistic devices,but with authentic comic inventions.Fielding wanted to emphasize in this novel the fact that other sins are much more serious than sexual irregularity: malice,cruelty,meanness and hypocrisy.The novelty that this novel introduces is its architectural quality in the sense that no plot has ever been carried through with more consummate skill.This skill becomes obvious after the reading of the novel as a whole.Firstly-there is the swiftness of the narration, the economy of the stylistic devices and the inexhaustible power of the comic invention.Secondly-every little detail has its proper place in the action,it is a preparation for what is to come,an essential part in the structure of the novel.Fielding creates in the character of Tom Jones a new kind of hero,that is the unheroic hero:"Though his heart is in the right place,his instincts are not always in control"(the character is presented as having flaws and weaknesses,but also qualities,he is a human being after all,he can not be perfect) .In this novel all the characters are masterfully differentiated,although they create a whole world,this world is populated by highly individualized characters. The last novel that is meritorious is Fielding’s last work entitled Amelia(published in 1751), that suppresses the comical line of the preceding novels and turns towards a more serious and perhaps tragic apprehension of the society of that time, marked by indifference and institutionalized bigotry. It was written according to Fielding in order “to promote the cause of virtue and to expose some of the most glaring evils, as well public as private, which at present infect the country”. The scenes that are described here are coming closer and closer to the real image of the 18 th century

world. Fielding’s vision here is no longer optimistic, but gets replaced with a more desolate vision dominated by pessimism. It has been said that the two main characters, Amelia and William Booth, are in fact Tom Jones and Sophia Western after their marriage. The paradise that the two were supposed to have achieved through marriage seems to have vanished; they have to face different trials that are meant to consolidate their relationship and many of these have been triggered by their honesty. The trials do not refer only to the material side of the marriage of the two, but also to the spiritual level and these two seem to be linked by a strong bond. If one is shattered, the other one will definitely be affected. Fielding is a more generous moralist than Richardson,the difference between the two being obvious in point of characters as well.Richardson and Fielding may be considered the founders of two important,essential types of novels out of which there emerged the whole bulk of the English novels.On the one hand-the comic novel with an ellaborate plot having priority over the characters(Fielding's case),on the other hand –the kind of novel in which the plot attempts only to embody the ordinary processes of life and in doing so,it becomes wholly dependent on characters and on the development of their relations(Richardson's case).