How The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling drew on The Aeneid
A documented line of influence: Henry Fielding demonstrably engaged Virgil’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Aeneid
Virgil · 19 BCE
Ancient RomeThe influenced
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Henry Fielding · 1749
EnlightenmentRelevance
6/10
On The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling’s page
- The epic frame Fielding is grafting onto a foundling's story — Tom's journey to his true home is plotted as an Aeneid-style homecoming
- Fielding borrows Virgil's one-year time-scheme and scatters Virgilian tags and Muse-invocations throughout
- Knowing the Aeneid lets you catch the joke and the ambition at once — Fielding is claiming epic stature for the comic novel
On The Aeneid’s page
- Fielding builds his comic novel on the Aeneid's bones — Tom, like Aeneas, is driven on a long road toward his rightful home
- The novel keeps Virgil's one-year epic time-scheme and studs itself with Virgilian tags and mock-Muse invocations
- The Aeneid gave the new English novel its claim to epic seriousness; Fielding wears the borrowing openly
More connections
Around The Aeneid
Around The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingDavid Copperfield
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingVanity Fair
- Don QuixoteThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingPride and Prejudice
- The IliadThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- The OdysseyThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling