The Intriguing Chambermaid: "What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow"
()
About this ebook
Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somerset on April 22nd 1707. His early years were spent on his parents’ farm in Dorset before being educated at Eton.
An early romance ended disastrously and with it his removal to London and the beginnings of a glittering literary career; he published his first play, at age 21, in 1728.
He was prolific, sometimes writing six plays a year, but he did like to poke fun at the authorities. His plays were thought to be the final straw for the authorities in their attempts to bring in a new law. In 1737 The Theatrical Licensing Act was passed. At a stroke political satire was almost impossible. Fielding was rendered mute. Any playwright who was viewed with suspicion by the Government now found an audience difficult to find and therefore Theatre owners now toed the Government line.
Fielding was practical with the circumstances and ironically stopped writing to once again take up his career in the practice of law and became a barrister after studying at Middle Temple. By this time he had married Charlotte Craddock, his first wife, and they would go on to have five children. Charlotte died in 1744 but was immortalised as the heroine in both Tom Jones and Amelia.
Fielding was put out by the success of Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. His reaction was to spur him into writing a novel. In 1741 his first novel was published; the successful Shamela, an anonymous parody of Richardson's novel.
Undoubtedly the masterpiece of Fielding’s career was the novel Tom Jones, published in 1749. It is a wonderfully and carefully constructed picaresque novel following the convoluted and hilarious tale of how a foundling came into a fortune.
Fielding was a consistent anti-Jacobite and a keen supporter of the Church of England. This led to him now being richly rewarded with the position of London's Chief Magistrate. Fielding continued to write and his career both literary and professional continued to climb.
In 1749 he joined with his younger half-brother John, to help found what was the nascent forerunner to a London police force, the Bow Street Runners. Fielding's ardent commitment to the cause of justice in the 1750s unfortunately coincided with a rapid deterioration in his health. Such was his decline that in the summer of 1754 he travelled, with Mary and his daughter, to Portugal in search of a cure. Gout, asthma, dropsy and other afflictions forced him to use crutches. His health continued to fail alarmingly.
Henry Fielding died in Lisbon two months later on October 8th, 1754.
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was an English novelist, dramatist, and prominent magistrate. He was born into noble lineage, yet was cut off from his allowance as a young man and subsequently began a career writing plays. He wrote over 25 dramatic works, primarily satires addressing political injustice. When Fielding's career as a playwright ended with new censorship laws, he turned to writing fiction. His work as a novelist is considered to have ushered in a new genre of literature. Among his best known masterpieces are The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild (1743) and The History of Tom Jones (1749).
Read more from Henry Fielding
The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction - Complete 20 Volumes: The Great Classics of World Literature: Notre Dame, Pride and Prejudice, David Copperfield, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Anna Karenina… Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joseph Andrews and Shamela Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJonathan Wild Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomance Classics Collection Vol: 1 (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Regency Romances of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTom Jones (Diversion Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Books of All Time Vol. 4 (Dream Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild: "All nature wears one universal grin." Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Complete Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoseph Andrews, Vol. 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJonathan Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph Andrews Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmelia: "Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea." Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Works of Henry Fielding; Vol. I; A Journey from This World to the Next and a Voyage to Lisbon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Old Man Taught Wisdom: “A good countenance is a letter of recommendation” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Works of Henry Fielding Edited by George Saintsbury in 12 Volumes Volume 12 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmelia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Amelia (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Journey from This World to the Next Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Intriguing Chambermaid
Related ebooks
Tumble-Down Dick: “Let no man be sorry he has done good, because others have done evil” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Henry Fielding: "Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Novelists - Jane Barker: jacobite feeling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Temple Beau: "Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove in Several Masques: "All nature wears one universal grin" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Law of Lombardy: 'The historian's page, the fertile epic store'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wedding Day: "Conscience - the only incorruptible thing about us" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Miser: "Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Falsehood: "Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Search After Happiness: "The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's First Folio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elegies & Other Small Poems: 'Soon I return, Clad in nobler form again to Triumph, And again be slain'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Pendennis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mourning Bride: "Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister: “Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Aphra Behn - Volume II: "Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fathers: "Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoetic Sketches: 'Whose fall his Country's tears attend, shower'd on his trophied grave!'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inflexible Captive: "Life though a short, is a working day. Activity may lead to evil; but inactivity cannot be led to good" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Covent-Garden Tragedy: "All nature wears one universal grin" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way of the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Pendennis: Volume 1: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarvard Classics Volume 18: Modern English Drama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way of the World: "Say what you will, ’tis better to be left than never to have been loved." Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quaint Gleanings from Ancient Poetry: A Collection of Curious Poetical Compositions of the XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth Centuries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Critic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Emigrants: "Oh, Hope! thou soother sweet of human woes!" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alchemist: "To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is This Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here We Go Again: My Life In Television Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Turned Upside Down: Finding the Gospel in Stranger Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Intriguing Chambermaid
0 ratings0 reviews