"Amelia" (Complete) by Henry Fielding (Pdf Edition) - Preview Available

Click Here to See Preview It is difficult to say whether Fielding was a realist or an idealist, and after having read him one is tempted rather to declare that the words have no meaning. Ought he to be called a realist “because he selected Jonathan Wild for a hero, or an idealist because he took Amelia for a heroine ! He found the second as he found the first—in nature ; and the first, like the second, was idealized, that is, transformed into a type in accordance with the eternal laws of art. As for calling Fielding a realist simply because in showing things as they are he sometimes called them by their names, it is a childish application of the word, and I note, merely in passing, the dreary stuff which passes with some people for the Alpha and Omega of criticism. What is sure and clear is that Fielding is a great classic. Walter Scott calls him the father of the English novel. Characters like Sophia and her maid, Squire Weston, Mrs. Weston, Sergeant Atkinson, Major Bath, Amelia, are