Harry Fielding is one of the most well-known authors from the Enlightenment period, the 17th to 18th century. He was renowned for his captivating storytelling, sharp wit, and fantastic social commentaries. But a lot of people nowadays don't really know him, as he's been overshadowed by better-known novelists such as Orson Welles, Mary Shelley, and Charles Dickens.
So today, The English Essentials is diving into his history, and his lasting impact on English literature. So, let's get started. Henry Fielding, the first English novelist. Early life and education. Henry Fielding, known to his family as Harry because that's how old families worked, was born on the 22nd of April in Somerset, England to an aristocratic family, bloody aristocrats.
This allowed him to make important connections very early on in life, bloody aristocrats. And young Henry showed an early aptitude for literature and language. But tragedy sadly struck Harry's family when he was very young. Henry's mother sadly passed away when he was about 11, and he was soon stuck in a bit of a custody battle between his grandmother and his father. His grandmother believed that Lieutenant General Edmund Fielding, Henry's father, was a very irresponsible man and that he wouldn't raise his son with the care and attention that the boy needed.
Now if this were nowadays we'd surely think great this grandmother is a wonderful human being and she's gonna win because yeah kids needs to have good caring parents or caring caregivers whoever that is you need to be cared for you need to be loved we've seen so many like true crime stuff all the evil kids have terrible childhoods But because this was the past in the 17th century, patriarchy! So his dad won the case. And, you know, the boy didn't get the right caring and things that he needed because his dad couldn't be bothered so he sent him away to boarding school.
The most well-known boarding school in England, maybe even the world. Eton College. I'm gonna call it a private school or probably just end up calling it Eton because I'll forget about this throughout the rest of the video but... Calling it a private school is what's going to make sense for the majority of the viewers of this channel.
But in the UK, Eton and Harrow and other affiliated schools are actually called public schools. It's very weird because they don't accept the public. Pretty much, public schools are funded partly by the government. And because of this, any member of the public can attend, provided that they can pay an absolute bucketload of money. And private schools are owned by private individuals and are run for profit.
So pretty much, private school means it's owned by an individual, public school means it's owned by the government, but the public can't go there. And what people outside of the UK would call a public school, we call a state school or a comprehensive school. Or just a comprehensive. For majority rule and for clarity's sake, I am going to call it a private school, or a boarding school, or Eton. But but just know that the UK is weird.
Anyway, Eton is one of the most la-di-da schools in the UK, and out of 57 prime ministers, 20 went to Eton College. The school is seen as a breeding ground for the Tory party. F*** the Tories.
And it was at this school that Henry Fielding made friends with one of the most influential prime ministers in English history, William Pitt, the elder. This friendship lasted all of Henry's life. At Eton, Fielding honed his literary skills and developed a deep appreciation for classical literature and drama.
His time at Eton sparked a passion for writing and acting in Henry and led him to pursue a career in the arts. Now, the past was weird and the aristocracy was even weirder, and looking at Henry you wouldn't be wrong to guess that he was probably a Habsburg. I mean look at that chin.
Anyway. Because the upper class was gross and they all married their cousins, Henry actually tried abducting his cousin Sarah Andrews to marry her. And after he was caught, he eventually had to flee the UK so that he wouldn't get prosecuted.
He fled to Leiden in South Holland, the Netherlands, where he studied classics and law. He however had to return because he was too poor to support himself overseas. Once back in London, he started to write.
Literary career and contributions. Fielding's literary career began in the early 1720s, when he moved to London and became part of the thriving theatre scene. He started to write plays, a series of comedies that really demonstrated his sharp wit, and seriously criticised the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Warple.
His first critically acclaimed play was Love in Several Masks in 1728, which earned him recognition as a rising playwright. It apparently was really good, I've not seen it, if anyone has, let me know. His work was so well renowned and so critical of the government that the Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737, an act which was created to control what plays could say about the government, is said to have been written as a direct response to Henry's work.
Once the law was passed, political satire in theatre was pretty much impossible, forcing Henry to step away from the theatre, because that was what he loved doing, and he resumed his legal career in the UK, becoming a barrister. I don't know what you call that in the States, I'll have it on the screen somewhere. We call it a barrister.
Fielding didn't have a lot of money though, and his family often went through periods of poverty. Thankfully the Fieldings were helped. by Ralph Allen, a powerful benefactor who helped provide education for all of Fielding's children after his death. Nice guy. But just because Fielding stepped away from the theatre doesn't mean that he stopped writing.
He continually wrote political satire using many pseudonyms like H. Scribblers Scrundalus and Captain Hercule or Hercules Vinegar, which I think are both f***ing hilarious. Can you imagine sitting down at a bar or going to a library somewhere and just asking someone?
Who's your favourite author? Oh, I'm a huge fan of Scribble McDoodle and Sergeant Ketcher. Banter.
Pure banter. Henry gets a massive thumbs up from me. It's brilliant. Anyway, in the 1730s, Henry wrote for a leading Tory, conservative, political called The Craftsman, which was very anti-Sir Robert Warple.
His patron for writing was a childhood friend from Eton, MP George Lyttelton. Lyttelton, with his leader, Lord Cobham, formed a party in opposition to Warple, called the Cobhamites, which included William Pitt, the Elder. Fielding continued to write for satirical political journals and started to write his first, what we would now call, novel in 1741. In 1742, he published his first novel, Joseph Andrews, a satirical work that... parodied the popular sentimental novels of the time. What was what he called, a kind of writing which I do not remember having seen hitherto attempted in our language.
It blended the two classical traditions of the epic, which was poetic, and the drama, pretty much theatres and theatre plays and things like that. There wasn't really a novel, and a novel sort of blended these two mediums together. The novel received critical acclaim for its humour, realistic character portrayals, and social critique, establishing Fielding as a significant voice in English literature.
Fielding then continued to write, and his most renowned work, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, published in 1749, remains his magnum opus. His thing. Thing. I don't know. It's the earliest English work to be classified as a novel.
The novel is a hilarious story of how a foundling, an infant abandoned by his parents who is then found by others, Tom Jones, comes into a great fortune. He navigates the complexities of love, morality, societal conventions. Fielding's ability to craft vivid characters, intertwine multiple plotlines and weave together humour and drama? solidified his reputation as a master storyteller.
Social and political commentary. Fielding's works were not merely tales for entertainment. They also served as vehicles for social and political commentary.
Throughout his writing, he fearlessly critiqued the corruption and hypocrisy of society, drawing attention to issues such as inequality, injustice, and moral decay. Fielding used humour and satire to expose the flaws of the ruling class and to champion the causes of the marginalised and oppressed. And he kind of cheated the system by making his work so satirical that if a Member of Parliament were to take Henry Fielding to court over his writings, that the MP, Member of Parliament, would be far more embarrassed by the trial than the writing itself, allowing Henry to pretty much write whatever he wanted. In 1749 he founded and edited the Covent Garden Journal, a periodical that tackled various societal issues and championed the causes of the political and legal reform that was needed in the country.
Fielding's journalistic endeavours further solidified his role as a social commenter and reformer. Legacy and lasting influence. Harry Fielding's contributions to English literature and theatre left an enduring impact on subsequent generations of writers and playwrights.
His innovative blend of satire, realism and moral storytelling paved the way for the development of the novel as a significant literary form. Fielding's works also played a pivotal role in the shaping of the English language. He had been incredibly, INCREDIBLY well educated, and grew up around the elite of England and, in many cases, the world. But he'd also experienced poverty, he had interacted with all sorts of people from across the social hierarchy, and was able to use colloquial dialogue and slang to which allowed his work to be accessible to anyone who saw his plays or read his books and journals. Fielding's commitment to social justice and his belief in the power of literature to effect change continues to resonate today.
His works have served as a source of inspiration for writers tackling all sorts of issues of social inequality and moral dilemmas. Death. Fielding committed to social justice to the very end. And he struggled with his want to fight for the betterment of others, and a rapid deterioration in his health.
It was the past, and they weren't terribly uncommon illnesses, but gout, asthma, and psoriasis of the liver were the writings on the wall for Henry. But he still tried to look for a cure in Portugal, where, you know, you're gonna drink port, but you know. Here, he died, two months after arriving, at the age of 50. His impact on literature. Now, this channel is not just about the biographies of famous writers, but it's also here to help people understand English better.
So let's have a look at the impact that Henry had on literature and the authors who took inspiration from him. Development of the novel. Fielding is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the English novel. His novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, is considered one of the foundational works in the development of the genre.
Fielding's realistic portrayals of characters, intricate plotting and use of humour set a standard for storytelling. His emphasis on moral dilemmas and social commentary within a narrative framework helped shape the novel as a substantial literary form, influencing subsequent generations of novelists. Satire and social commentary. Fielding's works are characterised by their sharp wit, biting satire, and astute social commentary. He fearlessly critiqued the hypocrisy and moral decay of high society, using humour and satire to point a mirror at the upper class to a point where they couldn't fight back.
Fielding's satirical approach influenced the works of authors such as Jonathan Swift and Lawrence Stern, who followed in his footsteps by employing satire to expose societal flaws and challenge established norms. You can definitely see it as well in works like Oscar Wilde. Realism and Characterization. Fielding's commitment to realism in his writing was groundbreaking. He created characters who, like humans, were flawed, complex, and multi-dimensional, reflecting the diversity and contradictions of human nature, which allowed his readers to relate to characters like they'd never done before.
Fielding's emphasis on individual psychology, social dynamic, and the complexities of human relationships marked a departure from the idolized portrayals of characters in earlier literary traditions. There are no heroes, there are no villains, because everyone's complex, and it was Henry that started that. His realistic characterization set the stage for the emergence of deeper, tormented characters that started to appear in the 19th century, like Victor Frankenstein and pretty much everyone in Dracula, which you should check out my audiobooks for.
A use of dialogue and narrative techniques. Fielding's mastery of dialogue and narrative techniques greatly influenced subsequent writers. He employed colloquial dialogue and used slang to be able to bring his characters to life and capture the nuances of different social classes. The other upper class authors at the time hadn't lived among the poor. They didn't know how to write poorer characters.
They didn't know how to write. their servants, because they didn't listen to them, they didn't know their slang. So suddenly you'd have someone from Yorkshire or you'd have someone from Cockney areas of London, and they'd be speaking like all of the posh people, because that was all the posh people knew. Fielding used multiple plot lines, intricate narratives, and storytelling devices such as digressions and authorial interventions, which greatly influenced later writers like Charles Dickens who If you have ever read any Dickens, it has the most plot lines in the world.
Great Expectations is a great book. It's a great book. But it is so bloody long and has so much going on.
It's... It's insane. Anyone who reads Dickens for fun, congratulations, you win.
Why? Great, great author, but so long. His legacy of social justice.
Fielding's commitment to social justice and his belief in the power of literature to affect change continue to resonate today. His works tackled social issues of inequality, injustice, and moral decay. shedding light on the flaws of ruling classes and championing the causes of marginalized and depressed people.
Oppressed people. Fielding's unflinching social critique and advocacy for reform inspired subsequent generations of writers to use literature as a vehicle for social change and to address pressing social issues, which you can see in pretty much every major book of the 20th century. Henry Fielding's impact on English literature is undeniable.
His contributions to the novel as a true form of literature, his satirical approach, his realistic characterizations, and his social commentary have left a lasting influence on later writers. Henry Fielding's innovative storytelling and his ability to merge entertainment with social critique solidified his place in history as one of the most influential British writers of all time. Thank you so very much for watching.
Please like and subscribe and all that stuff, and if you liked this format, please let me know who you'd like to see next. I'd love to cover future authors and yeah, let me know if you like the style of video as well. Once again, thank you, and I'll see you next week with more of your English essentials.