The History of Tom Jones _ A Foundling

"Perhaps all we have a right to expect from a conscientious editor is a well-written rehash of what others have already said. But this is not all that we are here given . . . Professor] Battestin can repeatedly correct the record by drawing upon the work of modern scholars... His commentary, which he supplies as notes to the text, necessarily tells us much that is well known to the specialist, but often corrects what previous editors have said and not infrequently clarifies what has never before been annotated... It is surprising that so much fresh information has been assembled for a book as well known as this."--Fredercik W. Hilles, The Yale Review

"This edition offers a critical unmodernized text of Tom Jones. The text is critical in that it has been established by application of analytical criticism to the evidence of the various documentary forms in which the novel has appeared. It is unmodernized in that every effort has been made to present the text in as close a form to Fielding's own inscription and final revision as the surviving documents permit, subject only to normal editorial regulations."--The Textual Introduction

"Brave men lived before Agamemnon; and there were editions of Fielding, of a sort, before Wesleyan series began. But every previous collection is now totally supplanted . . ."--British Society for 18th Century Studies Newsletter