Tom Jones Summary

A novel by H. Fielding, published 1749.
Although very long, the novel is highly organized, and was thought by Coleridge to have one of the
three great plots of all literature. The kindly, prosperous Mr Allworthy, a widower, lives in Somerset
with his ill-humoured unmarried sister Bridget. Late one evening Allworthy finds a baby boy lying on
his bed. He is charmed with the mysterious baby, names it Tom, and adopts it, adding the surname
Jones on the assumption that the mother is Jenny Jones, a maidservant to the wife of the
schoolmaster Partridge, who is eventually accused of being the father and dismissed his post. Both
Jenny and Partridge vanish from the neighbourhood. Meanwhile Bridget marries the obnoxious Captain
Blifil and they have a son, Master Blifil, who is brought up with Tom. They are taught by the brutish
chaplain Thwackum, and the philosopher Square, and have as family neighbours the bluff fox-hunting
Squire Western, his sister, and his daughter Sophia, as well as Allworthy's gamekeeper, Black George
Seagrim, and his wife and daughters.
The story moves on to the point when Tom is 19, and begins to find that his childhood affection for
the beautiful and sweet-natured Sophia (whose portrait Fielding founded upon his own wife) has
grown into adult love. However, Sophia is destined by her father for Master Blifil, and Tom allows
himself to be distracted by the charms of Molly Seagrim. By clever misrepresentation the scheming
young Blifil converts Allworthy's affection for Tom into anger, and with the help of Thwackum and
Square he succeeds in having the harum-scarum Tom expelled from the house. Filled with despair that
he has alienated his beloved foster-father and is leaving all he loves, Tom sets off for Bristol intending
to go to sea. Meanwhile Sophia, disgusted by Blifil's courtship, runs away with her maid Honour,
hoping to find her kinswoman Lady Bellaston in London. Amid numerous adventures on the road,
during which he falls in with redcoats and is deflected from his plan of going to sea, Tom encounters
Partridge, once supposed to be his father, who is now travelling the country as a barber-surgeon.
Unknown to Tom, he and Sophia both find themselves in an inn at Upton, but because of Partridge's
malicious stupidity Sophia believes that Tom (now in bed with Mrs Waters, of whom we are to hear
more) no longer loves her, and flees on towards London. Tom follows, and in London is ensnared by
the rich and amorous Lady Bellaston. She and her friend Lord Fellamar, who is in pursuit of Sophia,
contrive together to keep Tom away from his love, but the abrupt eruption of Squire Western saves
Sophia from Fellamar's snare. Partridge now reveals that Mrs Waters is none other than Jenny Jones,
supposed to be Tom's mother, and for a brief period Tom believes he has committed incest. But Jenny
reveals that Tom's mother was really Bridget Allworthy (later Blifil), who has confessed all to her
brother on her death-bed, and that his father was a young man long since dead. Lady Bellaston and
Lord Fellamar attempt to have Tom pressganged, but instead he is arrested and imprisoned after a
fight in which it first appears he has killed his assailant. Sophia cannot forgive his entanglement with
Lady Bellaston and Tom's fortunes are at their lowest ebb. Blifil arranges that the gang shall give
evidence against Tom, but, with the help of a long letter from Square to Allworthy, Blifil's envious
machinations, dating from their earliest boyhood, are finally revealed, and Tom is reinstated in his
repentant uncle's affection. He meets Sophia again at last, learns that she loves him, and receives the
hearty blessing of her father. In the generosity of his heart, Tom forgives all who have wronged him,
even including the detestable Blifil.
In Chapter One, 'Bill of Fare', Fielding informs the reader that 'The provision ... we have here made is
no other than Human Nature' and in his Dedication to Lyttelton declares, 'that to recommend goodness
and innocence hath been my sincere endeavour in this history'. The book was enthusiastically received
by the general public of the day, although Fielding's robust distinctions between right and wrong
(which, for instance, permit his high-spirited hero various sexual escapades before his final blissful
marriage) were a severe irritant to many, including Dr Johnson. The book is generally regarded as
Fielding's greatest, and as one of the first and most influential of English novels.

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A novel by H. Fielding, published 1749.

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