什麼是費爾丁

Fielding, Henry

英國小說家和劇作家。曾就讀於伊頓公學。一生共寫了二十五部劇本，全部都是早期的作品，內容均為諷刺當時的政治腐敗現象；由於語言犀利，後被逐出戲劇界，所以他開始學習法律。1748年被任命為地方治安法官，他在倫敦地區建立了新的司法傳統和有力地打擊了當地的犯罪活動。他可能寫了《夏美勒.安德魯斯夫人生平的辯護》（1941）以諷刺理查生的小說《帕美勒》，其中嘲笑了理查生的溫情主義和謹小慎微的道德觀。《約瑟夫.安德魯斯》（1742）也是一本嘲笑理查生的小說。《湯姆.瓊斯》（1749）是他最受歡迎的作品，書中刻畫了眾多人物，描寫倫敦和外省上、下層社會鮮明對照的生活。而《阿米麗亞》（1751）這部書主要反映了維多利亞時代和社會的罪惡和弊病。這些作品發展出英國小說的那種全面反映當代社會的寫實主義傳統。

1707～1754年

Fielding, Henry

British novelist and playwright. He attended Eton College but left early and lost his family's support. In his 25 plays, all written early, he was essentially a satirist of political corruption; because of his sharp commentary he was eventually effectively banished from the theater, whereupon he took up the study of law. In 1748 he was appointed a magistrate, in which role he established a new tradition of justice and suppression of crime in London. He probably wrote Shamela (1741), a burlesque of Samuel Richardson's Pamela that he never claimed. In the entertaining and original Joseph Andrews (1742) he also parodies Richardson's novel. Tom Jones (1749), his most popular work, is noted for its great comic gusto, vast gallery of characters, and contrasted scenes of high- and lowlife. The more sober Amelia (1751) anticipates the Victorian domestic novel. In these works he helped develop the English novel as a planned, realistic narrative genre surveying contemporary society.