Part of the "Wesleyan Fielding" series, this work is devoted to author's major works of fiction, "The History of the Life" of the late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great, an ironic political satire on false greatness. It includes an historical introduction, textual introduction, and explanatory notes.
Volume Three of Henry Fielding's Miscellanies is devoted entirely to one of his major works of fiction, The History of the Life of the late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great, an ironic political satire on false greatness. Like others in the Wesleyan Fielding series, the present edition, which follows the original version of 1743 rather than Fielding's later revision, includes an historical introduction, an authoritative text and textual introduction, and full explanatory notes.
Bertrand A. Goldgar's commentary is expert, rich, and a further bonus comes with Amory's annotations and introductory essay to the Miscellanies subscription list, which add a wealth of new detail about Fielding's circle and readership to the best-known fact about the list, which is that Walpole subscribed for ten sets on royal paper ... the case jointly assembled by Amory and Goldgar here is a formidable one, and all future accounts of the politics of Jonathan Wild - and of Fielding's work more generally in the crucial period surrounding Walpole's fall - will have to take it on board.
