Henry Fielding, 1707-1754.--The greatest novelist of the eighteenth century, and one of the greatest that England ever produced, was Henry Fielding, who was born in Sharpham Park, Somersetshire. After graduating at the University of Leyden, he became a playwright, a lawyer, a judge of a police court, and, most important of all, a novelist, or a historian of society, as he preferred to style himself. When Richardson's _Pamela_ appeared, Fielding determined to write a story caricaturing its morality and sentiment, which he considered hypocritical. Before he had gone very far he discovered where his abilities lay, and, abandoning his narrow, satiric aims, he wrote _Joseph Andrews_ (1742), a novel far more interesting than _Pamela_. _Jonathan Wild the Great_ (1743) tells the story of a rogue who was finally hanged. In 1749 appeared Fielding's masterpiece, _Tom Jones_, and in 1751 his last novel, _Amelia_. Richardson lacks humor, but Fielding is one of the greatest humorists of the eighteenth century. Fielding is also a master of plot. From all literature, Coleridge selected, for perfection of plot, _The Alchemist, Oedipus Tyrannus_, and _Tom Jones_. Fielding's novels often lack refinement, but they palpitate with life. His pages present a wonderful variety of characters, chosen from almost all walks of life. He could draw admirable portraits of women. Thackeray says of Amelia, the heroine of the novel that bears her name:-- "To have invented that character, is not only a triumph of art, but it is a good action. They say it was in his own home that Fielding knew her and loved her, and from his own wife that he drew the most charming character in English fiction... I admire the author of _Amelia_, and thank the kind master who introduced me to that sweet and delightful companion and friend. _Amelia_, perhaps, is not a better story than _Tom Jones_, but it has the better ethics; the prodigal repents at least before forgiveness,--whereas that odious broad-backed Mr. Jones carries off his beauty with scarce an interval of remorse for his manifold errors and shortcomings... I am angry with Jones. Too much of the plum cake and rewards of life fall to that boisterous, swaggering young scapegrace."[1] The "prodigal" to whom Thackeray refers is Captain Booth, the husband of Amelia, and "Mr. Jones" is the hero of _Tom Jones_. Fielding's wife, under the name of Sophia Western, is also the heroine of _Tom Jones_. It is probable that in the characters of Captain Booth and Tom Jones, Fielding drew a partial portrait of himself. He seems, however, to have changed in middle life, for his biographer, Austin Dobson, says of him: "He was a loving father and a kind husband; he exerted his last energies in philanthropy and benevolence; he expended his last ink in defence of Christianity."