The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

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Title: The History of Tom Jones, a foundling
Author: Henry Fielding
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6593] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 29, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING ***

Carlo Traverso, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

The present edition, produced by Distributed Proofreaders, has been cross-checked with 2 other different editions available on-line.

Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a foundling.

CONTENTS
DEDICATION
BOOK I -- CONTAINING AS MUCH OF THE BIRTH OF THE FOUNDLING AS IS NECESSARY OR PROPER TO ACQUAINT THE READER WITH IN THE BEGINNING OF THIS HISTORY.

Chapter i
-- The introduction to the work, or bill of fare to the feast.

Chapter ii
-- A short description of squire Allworthy, and a fuller account of Miss Bridget Allworthy, his sister.

Chapter iii
-- An odd accident which befel Mr Allworthy at his return home. The decent behaviour of Mrs Deborah Wilkins, with some proper animadversions on bastards.

Chapter iv
-- The reader's neck brought into danger by a description; his escape; and the great condescension of Miss Bridget Allworthy.

Chapter v
-- Containing a few common matters, with a very uncommon observation upon them.

Chapter vi
-- Mrs Deborah is introduced into the parish with a simile. A short account of Jenny Jones, with the difficulties and discouragements which may attend young women in the pursuit of learning.

Chapter vii
-- Containing such grave matter, that the reader cannot laugh once through the whole chapter, unless peradventure he should laugh at the author.

Chapter viii
-- A dialogue between Mesdames Bridget and Deborah; containing more amusement, but less instruction, than the former.

Chapter ix
-- Containing matters which will surprize the reader.

Chapter x
-- The hospitality of Allworthy; with a short sketch of the characters of two brothers, a doctor and a captain, who were entertained by that gentleman.

Chapter xi
-- Containing many rules, and some examples, concerning falling in love: descriptions of beauty, and other more prudential inducements to matrimony.

Chapter xii
-- Containing what the reader may, perhaps, expect to find in it.

Chapter xiii
-- Which concludes the first book; with an instance of ingratitude, which, we hope, will appear unnatural.
BOOK II -- CONTAINING SCENES OF MATRIMONIAL FELICITY IN DIFFERENT DEGREES OF LIFE; AND VARIOUS OTHER TRANSACTIONS DURING THE FIRST TWO YEARS AFTER THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN CAPTAIN BLIFIL AND MISS BRIDGET ALLWORTHY.

Chapter i
-- Showing what kind of a history this is; what it is like, and what it is not like.

Chapter ii
-- Religious cautions against showing too much favour to bastards; and a great discovery made by Mrs Deborah Wilkins.

Chapter iii
-- The description of a domestic government founded upon rules directly contrary to those of Aristotle.

Chapter iv
-- Containing one of the most bloody battles, or rather duels, that were ever recorded in domestic history.

Chapter v
-- Containing much matter to exercise the judgment and reflection of the reader.

Chapter vi
-- The trial of Partridge, the schoolmaster, for incontinency; the evidence of his wife; a short reflection on the wisdom of our law; with other grave matters, which those will like best who understand them most.

Chapter vii
-- A short sketch of that felicity which prudent couples may extract from hatred: with a short apology for those people who overlook imperfections in their friends.

Chapter viii
-- A receipt to regain the lost affections of a wife, which hath never been known to fail in the most desperate cases.

Chapter ix
-- A proof of the infallibility of the foregoing receipt, in the lamentations of the widow; with other suitable decorations of death, such as physicians, &c., and an epitaph in the true stile.
BOOK III -- CONTAINING THE MOST MEMORABLE TRANSACTIONS WHICH PASSED IN THE FAMILY OF MR ALLWORTHY, FROM THE TIME WHEN TOMMY JONES ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF FOURTEEN, TILL HE ATTAINED THE AGE OF NINETEEN. IN THIS BOOK THE READER MAY PICK UP SOME HINTS CONCERNING THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

Chapter i
-- Containing little