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Heptameron. Amherst, Mass.: Hestia Press, 1993.
Rigolet, François.  Magdalen s Skull: Allegory and Iconography in The Heptameron.
Renaissance Quarterly 47 (Spring 1994): 57 73.
Tebbel, John. A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Vol. 2. New York:
Bowker, 1975.
Thomas, Donald. A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England.
New York: Praeger, 1969.
THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING
Author: Henry Fielding
Original dates and places of publication: 1749, England; 1931, United
States
Original publishers: Andrew Millar (England); Brown House (United
States)
Literary form: Novel
SUMMARY
The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling is a road novel that relates the adven-
tures of the sexually impulsive young protagonist, from his illegitimate birth
through his marriage to the beautiful and virtuous Sophia Western. Found
as a baby in Squire Allworthy s bed, Tom is raised in the household and
treated like a family member. Although he falls in love with Sophia, he can-
not resist the sexual charms of the gamekeeper s daughter, Molly Seagrim,
who becomes pregnant with what he thinks is his child. He confesses his
indiscretion to Allworthy and then goes to Molly to give her money, but he
finds her in bed with another man. Chastened, Tom decides to concentrate
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on winning Sophia s love, but her father, Squire Western, refuses to let her
marry a foundling and tries to arrange a marriage to Allworthy s nephew
Blifil. Squire Allworthy becomes very ill, then recovers, and Tom becomes
drunk celebrating the recovery, but conspirators in the household claim that
he was celebrating the squire s impending death and his supposed inheri-
tance, so the squire banishes Tom.
While on the road, Tom has an affair with Mrs. Waters, whom he res-
cued from attack by a surly soldier named Northerton. He later meets Lady
Bellaston who, having heard of his attractiveness, seeks him out and seduces
him. This affair gave the most offense when the novel first appeared, because
he not only has the affair but also becomes her short-term gigolo. After Tom
ends the affair, he receives a letter from Sophia, telling him that she knows
about the two women and never wants to see him again. Further adventures
occur, and a series of coincidences reveal that Tom is the illegitimate child
of Squire Allworthy s late sister Bridget. Now that he is an Allworthy heir,
Squire Western welcomes Tom as his son-in-law, although Sophia pretends
reluctance. The two finally marry, and the novel ends happily as Squire
Western gives them his estate.
Despite the lack of actual sexual material in the book, the numerous ref-
erences to illegitimacy, references to Tom s numerous sexual liaisons, and
explicit anatomical references made the book a target of censors. In several
scenes, female characters suffer having their upper clothing torn from their
bodies as they fight to preserve their virtue. In the incident in which Tom
rescues Mrs. Waters,
he had not entered far into the wood before he beheld a most shocking sight
indeed, a woman stripped half naked, under the hands of a ruffian. . . . her
clothes being torn from all the upper part of her body, her breasts, which
were well formed and extremely white, attracted the eyes of her deliverer.
Although he loves Sophia, Tom continues to satisfy his desire for other
women, more in the manner of boyish high spirits than in immorality. He
views sex much as he views any challenge and  held it as much incumbent
on him to accept a challenge to love as if it had been a challenge to fight. In
addition to sexual references, Fielding s use of such taboo terms as bitch, slut,
hussy, harlot, and arse also incited complaints.
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
The History of Tom Jones was attacked as  vulgar,  low,  indecent, and
 devoid of moral sense from its first publication. Critics claimed that
Fielding had written  an enticement to moral corruption. Soon after the
novel was published, Gentleman s Magazine observed that the  loose images
of the novel  perhaps invite to vice more than the contrast figures alarm us
into virtue. In 1750, Bishop of London Thomas Sherlock warned that the
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novel had been written merely as an excuse to include  the most inexecrable
Scenes of Lewdness. In 1772, Reverend Jonathan Edwards denounced The
History of Tom Jones and warned the young against reading it.
Writing in 1879 regarding those works that should be contained in the
well-stocked library, Samuel Green, a librarian in Worcester, Massachusetts,
pointed out that he
would place certain restrictions on the use of the novels of Smollett and
Fielding, because while in many respects works of the first order, it is best
that the young should read only such books as preserve a certain reticence in
regard to subjects freely talked and written about in the last century.
In 1892, The History of Tom Jones was involved in the litigation of the
Worthington Book Publishing Co., which was in financial difficulty. The
receiver wanted to sell some of the company stock, including the arabian
nights, the decameron, the art of love, the heptameron, GARGANTUA AND
PANTAGRUEL, Rousseau s confessions, and The History of Tom Jones to pay off
creditors, but Anthony Comstock, secretary of the New York Society for the
Suppression of Vice, stepped in to oppose the sales. He demanded of the court
that the books be officially burned. The court disagreed. (See Arabian Nights.)
In New York City in 1894, the Astor library removed all works by Field-
ing from its regular collection and placed them in the reference collection,
after several patrons noted the  vulgar activities depicted in the novel.
City and county officials in Dubuque, Iowa, staged a sudden raid on the
public library in 1951. Under the authority of a warrant, they seized numer-
ous books that were judged to be  obscene, including works of Rabelais,
Boccaccio s Decameron, and The History of Tom Jones.
FURTHER READING
Geller, Evelyn. Forbidden Books in American Public Libraries, 1876 1939. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood, 1984.
Green, Samuel S.  Sensational Fiction in Public Libraries. Library Journal 4 (Sep-
tember October 1879): 349 52.
Rolph, Cecil Hewitt. Books in the Dock. London: Deutsch, 1961.
Thomas, Donald. Henry Fielding: A Life. New York: St. Martin s, 1990.
HOMO SAPIENS
Author: Stanley Przybyszewski
Original dates and places of publication: 1898, Germany; 1915, United
States
Original publishers: Hansson (Germany); Alfred A. Knopf (United
States)
Literary form: Novel
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HOMO SAPIENS
SUMMARY
Homo Sapiens is an intense and introspective work written and first published
in Germany by the Polish-born writer Stanley Przybyszewski and then trans-
lated and published in the United States. The author s best-known novel,
Homo Sapiens uses ornate language to trace the dissolution of the hedonistic [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]