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HARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRf^RY TIRY IXTERPRETATIOXS 31111Q04748354 OF TOM JONES Edited by MARTIN C. BATTESTIN A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS BY Wayne C. Booth Empson F. R. Leavis Andrew Wright Robert Alter William • • R. S. Crane . • Ian Watt $3.95 1153 LO 1 Each volume 00 of TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS modern commentary great work of literature, =o presents the best of to on a and an original introduction that work by an outstanding authority. Analyzing themes, style, genre, structural elements, artistic influences, and historical background, the essa\s define the place of the work in its tradition and make clear its for readers of significance todaw "- Fielding's Tom states Martin C. volume, has recently Jones, Battestin, editor of this been the subject of more stimulating discussion than an>' other novel of the eighteenth centur\— the critics regarding it not as just a historical curiosity, but as a its own work of art in right. Over ten years ago, Kingsley Amis remarked on the "Fielding revival" which, as Battestin notes, "we are, in fact, still very much in the midst of." Amis observed that Fielding's humor was "closer to our own than that of any writer before the present century" and that contemporary authors have followed him in their attempt to "combine the violent and the absurd, the grotesque and the romantic, the farcical and the horrific within a single novel." The distinguished critics in this volume offer other reasons for the popularity Tom Jones now enjoys. For (continued on back flap) ICO 1 RETURN TO CENTRAL DATE DUE MAR ^,11986 _z'^^ 2^ 1 T lMS -^ m 823 7 7 ?oo? Battt Fielding .llec- -gle- A Spectrum book. Includes bibliographical references. I. 1. Fielding, Henry, 1707-1754. Title : The history (Series: Twentieth tions. Fielding, LW 10/69 The history of ^ Henry) \ Tom Jones. of Tom Jones century interpreta- TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS Maynard Mack, Series Editor Yale University NOW AVAILABLE Collections of Critical Essays ON Adventures of Huckleberry Finn All for Love Arrowsmith As You Like It The Book of Job The Duchess of Malfi The Frogs Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Great Gatsby Gulliver's Travels Hamlet Henry IV, Part Two Henry V The Iceman Cometh The Portrait of a Lady Samson Agonistes The Scarlet Letter The Sound and the Fury Tom Jones Twelfth Night Utopia Walden The Waste Land TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF TOM JONES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 http://www.archive.org/details/twentiethcenturyOObatt TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF TOM JONES A Collection of Critical Essays Edited by Martin Prentice-Hall, Inc. C. Battestin /^ tf^kX Englewood A SPECmUM BOOK Marin County Free Library Civic Center Administration Building San Rafael, Cslifofnis Cliffs, N, J. iro3 1