HENRY FIELDING AS THE PRECURSOR OF ENGLISH NOVEL: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

The main aim behind the present paper is to throw ample light on Henry Fielding’s contribution in the realm of English fiction. Henry Fielding is generally regarded as ‘the father of English novel’. Although the novel started with Daniel Defoe, who wrote realistic fiction in first person narrative, it was Henry Fielding who gave a regular and proper shape to the novel in the eighteenth century. Like Daniel Defoe, Fielding also practiced realistic novels with a deep interest in the portraiture of contemporary life. In his works, Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, Jonathan Wild, and Amelia, he has dealt with the evils of contemporary society. In other words, he also acts as a social reformer who wants to purge evils from society. After going through his works, one gets a very wide and extensive picture of English social life. He has rightly been called the precursor of the English novel in the real sense of words.