Tom Jones

Young Tom Jones, pure-hearted and warm-blooded, parentage unknown and future uncertain, stands at the center of this masterpiece of the English language. Yet he is but one of the book's expertely drawn caracters; his adventures on the highway of life entangle him with a variety of men and women who vividly cover the whole spectrum of human virtue and vice. His high-minded love for sweet Sophia cannot restrain the demands of his flesh for the pretty and bawdy Molly or the seductive Mrs. Waters; nor can the benevolence of Squire Allworthy protect him from the wretched Blifil. Before he recognizes his destiny, he must suffer all the outrages of comic misfortune. The richly textured pattern of Tom Jones is one of the marvels of literature; and in its parody and pathos, its wit and constant surprise, the reader views the pure joy of life itself. Coleridge wrote of this work, "Upon my word, I think the Oedipus Tyrannus, the Alchemist, and Tom Jones, the three most perfect plots ever planned." Frank Kermode comments there are "fewer works of art so perfectly made, so perfectly of their period, yet possessing the energy and high spirits and good humour to transcend it."

Literatura Estrangeira / Romance