Each chapter in this intriguing book by one of the world's leading authorities on Henry Fielding begins with an annotated chronology of the known facts, followed by analyses of the important issues. Paulson's account must be essential reading to all admirers and serious students of Fielding and his work.

Ronald Paulson is professor of English at John Hopkins University. He is both a major authority on Henry Fielding and one of the world's leading scholars of eighteenth-century literary and artistic culture. His recent books include The Beautiful, Novel and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy (!995) and Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter (1998).