A Political Biography of Henry Fielding

J. A. Downie

This book is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

J. A. Downie

Publisher:: Pickering & Chatto
Online publication date:: December 2014
Online ISBN:: 9781851966806

Subjects:: History, Regional History after 1500

Export citation

Information

Contents

Metrics

Best known today as the author of three seminal novels, Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones and Amelia, Henry Fielding (1707–1754) was the most successful playwright of his day until Walpole put an end to politics on the stage by passing the theatrical Licensing Act of 1737.
Turning to political journalism, Fielding wrote the lead essays for periodicals such as The Champion (1739–41), The True Patriot (1745–6) and The Jacobite's Journal (1747–8), as well as swingeing political satire in prose and verse. Although scholars agree that Fielding subscribed to revolution principles, existing accounts of his political ideas are insufficiently aware not only of the structure of politics in the first half of the eighteenth century, but of the ways in which the various strands of Whig political ideology developed during the sixty years following the Revolution of 1688. This political biography explains and illustrates what 'being a Whig' meant to Fielding.

"'In its detailed explications of the interactions between [differing] faces of Fielding's politics, Mr Downie's account is extremely helpful and clarifying, perhaps the most through reading of the evidence to date—and especially notable for reading the silences too. It will likely remain the definitive account.'"

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

A Political Biography of Henry Fielding

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

CONTENTS
pp v-vi

Acknowledgements
pp vii-vii

Dedication
pp viii-viii

Author's Note
pp ix-x

Introduction
pp 1-12

1 - ‘So Dissipated, Though Well Born and Well-Educated a Youth’
pp 13-20

2 - ‘Unshap'd Monsters of a Wanton Brain!’: 1728–1731
pp 21-54

3 - ‘Court Poet’?: 1732–1735
pp 55-68

4 - ‘Dramatick Satire’: 1736–1739
pp 69-88

5 - ‘Writ in Defence of the Rights of the People’: 1739–1741
pp 89-110

6 - The Political Significance of The Opposition. A Vision
pp 111-124

7 - ‘There are Several Boobies who are Squires’: 1742–1745
pp 125-146

8 - ‘A Strenuous Advocate for the Ministry’: 1745–1748
pp 147-172

9 - ‘A Hearty Well-Wisher to the Glorious Cause of Liberty’: Tom Jones and the Forty-Five
pp 173-184

10 - ‘This Botcher in Law and Politics’: 1749–1754
pp 185-202

Conclusion
pp 203-208

Notes
pp 209-246

Works Cited
pp 247-260

Index
pp 261-269

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views

A Political Biography of Henry Fielding

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Full text views

Book summary page views