"Cliff Notes - Tom Jones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

pretending to obey only her father's wishes, but actually
obeying her own heart, accepts him. They marry and return
happily to the country, where Western gives them his estate.



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TOM JONES: THE NARRATOR

Many readers find the narrator the most interesting character in
Tom Jones. (Some readers identify the narrator with Fielding.)
In the first chapter, the narrator compares the novel to a feast
and the opening chapters of each book to a menu. The narrator
himself is like a very affable host who has invited you to
dinner. Genial, intelligent, witty, he's wonderfully well
educated (especially in the classics) but never stuffy. Whether
criticizing critics and other novelists, or calling for your
sympathy in helping him with the impossible task of his
narrative, he constantly amuses and charms. In Tom Jones, you
feel as if you have had a personal chat with the narrator just
by reading his novel.

^^^^^^^^^^
TOM JONES: TOM JONES

Tom Jones is the foundling taken in and raised by the wealthy
Squire Allworthy. You later learn that he is Mrs. Bridget's
son--and thus Allworthy's nephew, Master Blifil's older
half-brother, and the heir to the Allworthy estate.

Tom Jones is both unheroic and heroic. "Even at his first
appearance, it was the universal opinion of all Mr. Allworthy's
family, that he was born to be hanged," says the narrator. When
you meet him again at age fourteen, "he has been already
convicted of three robberies, viz. of robbing an orchard, of
stealing a duck out of farmer's yard, and of picking Master
Blifil's pocket of a ball.... Tom Jones was universally
disliked."

But Tom's thefts, and Tom himself, have another side as well.
Tom robbed the orchard and stole the duck to help the
impoverished gamekeeper, Black George. Tom is often
astoundingly generous, underlining Fielding's belief in charity
as one of the central Christian virtues. At the novel's end,
even Allworthy, an ideal of charity, is amazed by Tom's
generosity toward the criminal Black George.

Further, unlike Master Blifil, Tom seeks no publicity for his
virtues. He gives Mrs. Miller money for her relatives
privately, and he's embarrassed by her praise. Nor, unlike so