Sarah Fielding Criticism
Sarah Fielding (1710–1768), an English novelist and translator, emerged as a notable figure in the literary world with her novel The Adventures of David Simple (1744), often considered one of the earliest true English novels. Fielding, the sister of the renowned novelist Henry Fielding, was influenced by both her brother's satirical style and Samuel Richardson's moral-driven narratives. In The Satirist as Point of View, Paulson highlights how Fielding used characters as satirists within her texts. Her works often grapple with themes of virtue, female agency, and societal expectations, exploring the psyche and challenges faced by women in the 18th century. As noted by Woodward, her writing critiques the feminine virtues endorsed by capitalist-patriarchal society.
Fielding's pioneering work in children's literature, The Governess; or, Little Female Academy (1749), is recognized as the first novel aimed specifically at young girls, a point often overlooked as highlighted by Downs-Miers. This novel incorporated narratives that promoted Enlightenment ideals of self-discovery and rational thinking, a progressive approach for its time as discussed by Burdan. Fielding further explored female virtue and societal roles in The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia (1757), blending biography and fiction to showcase women's psychological complexity as examined by Johnson.
Despite her initial popularity, Fielding's works have been largely neglected by modern audiences, though there is renewed interest from feminist literary critics. Her narrative struggles and moral earnestness have been critiqued, yet her ability to embed psychological insights into her characters is praised. Spencer discusses her portrayal of women within the constraints of societal expectations, while Battestin examines complex familial themes in her works. Fielding's influence on the development of the novel as a form and her role as a pioneering woman writer remain significant areas of scholarly exploration.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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Fielding's Revisions of David Simple
(summary)
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.
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The Satirist as Point of View
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Paulson examines Fielding's David Simple as an example of eighteenth-century novelists' use of characters as satirists within the narrative text.
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Henry Fielding, and 'the Dreadful Sin of Incest'
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Battestin examines the theme of incest between brother and sister in the works of Sarah Fielding and her brother Henry.
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For Betty and the Little Female Academy: A Book of Their Own
(summary)
Below, Downs-Miers suggests that literary critics have typically overlooked Fielding's The Governess as the first English novel written expressly for children because girls, not boys, are both the subject of and audience for Fielding's didactic tale.
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Introduction to The Cry
(summary)
Below, Schofield discusses how Fielding and Jane Collier in their collaborative novel, The Cry, subvert the traditional romance genre to explore the female psyche and to critique the genre itself.
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Springing the Trap: Subtexts and Subversions
(summary)
In the following essay, Downs-Miers examines the literary strategies and conventions Fielding used to create texts that would appeal to a middle-class market, even though her narratives included unconventional explorations of the female psyche and challenges to prevailing eighteenth-century views of womanhood.
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The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen
(summary)
In the first part of the following excerpt, Spencer discusses how the financial and emotional dependence of women novelists in the mid-eighteenth century on male patrons thwarted their willingness to challenge existing sexual hierarchies. In the second part of the excerpt, Spencer examines Fielding's The Countess of Dellwyn in relation to changing attitudes toward adultery and seduction in the mid-eighteenth century.
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Sarah Fielding's Self-Destructing Utopia: The Adventures of David Simple
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Woodward argues that Fielding's David Simple is a critique of the feminine virtues prescribed by capitalist-patriarchal society, and suggests that domestic ideology confined and stultified Fielding herself.
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Girls Must Be Seen and Heard: Domestic Surveillance in Sarah Fielding's The Governess
(summary)
In the following essay, Burdan suggests that in The Governess, Fielding provides a model of progressive education for girls based on Enlightenment thought and using pedagogical tools of observation believed to be specifically suited for females.
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Satires of Tyrants and Toadeaters: Fielding and Collier
(summary)
Below, Rizzo discusses the concept of the 'toadeater' in eighteenth-century literature and Fielding's use of the motif to explore unhealthy relationships maintained by unequal distributions of power.
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Introduction to The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia
(summary)
Below, Johnson discusses how Fielding blends fiction and biography to create a unique narrative form in The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia which she uses to examine women's psychological complexity while exposing the corrupting power of human institutions.
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Education and Ideology in Sarah Fielding's The Governess
(summary)
Below, Wilner argues that Fielding's The Governess is not a subversive text, but is a conservative didactic narrative that leaves unchallenged prevailing bourgeois patriarchal values, and instead presages eighteenth and nineteenth-century idealizations of domestic, middle-class womanhood.
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The Psychological Adventures of Sarah Fielding's David Simple
(summary)
Below, Simms argues that David Simple is a psychological tour-de-force, but that Fielding left much of her character's subconscious unexplored.
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Fielding's Revisions of David Simple
(summary)
- Further Reading