Fielding, Sarah | Robert S. Hunting (essay date 1957)
Robert S. Hunting (essay date 1957)
SOURCE: "Fielding's Revisions of David Simple," in Boston University Studies in English, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer, 1957, pp. 117-21.
[Below, Hunting discusses the extent of Henry Fielding's "corrections" to his sister's novels, describing them as the benign attempt of a loving brother to polish his sister's inferior literary efforts.]
I
In 1744 appeared a now almost forgotten two-volume book, anonymously published, called The Adventures of David Simple: Containing An Account of his Travels Through the Cities of London and Westminister, In Search of A Real Friend. This first of the so-called "humanitarian" novels was written "By a Lady" who, in her preface, apologized for "the many Inaccuracies … in the Style, and other Faults of the Composition." The modest author was Sarah Fielding, spinster sister of Henry Fielding, noted playwright, editor, and novelist.
In 1744,...
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