'"Sir, I am concerned at the Trouble I give you; nay indeed my Nakedness may well
make me ashamed to look you in the Face ..." Jones offered her his Coat; but, I know not
for what Reason, she absolutely refused the most earnest Solicitations to accept it'
A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate,
Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful
daughter of the neighbouring squire - though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the
local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is
banished to make his own fortune. Sophia, meanwhile, is determined to avoid an arranged
marriage to Allworthy's scheming nephew and escapes from her rambunctious father to follow
Tom to London.
Henry Fielding's vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life is spiced with
danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the
eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
