The author of this study of the novelist Henry Fielding (1707-54) is Professor of English Language and Literature at King’s College (University of Durham), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and General Editor of the great Twickenham edition of Pope’s poetry. He is also engaged in writing the volume in The Oxford History of English Literature covering the period 1740-80. Professor Butt examines the structure of Fielding’s work, and shows how the breadth of his learning and experience informed all that he wrote.

Other essays in this series of special interest to students of the eighteenth century are Defoe by James Sutherland; Pope by Ian Jack; Johnson by S. C. Roberts; Sterne by D. W. Jefferson; Smollett by Laurence Brander and Sheridan by W. A. Darlington.