The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling quiz

More questions about The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

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1. 1 Easy

   What literary genre did Henry Fielding claim to invent?

   Answer: Comic epic in prose

   Why: Fielding coined the phrase in 1742 for Joseph Andrews; inside Tom Jones he calls his craft prosai-comi-epic writing instead.

2. 2 Medium

   Under what name does Tom finally meet Jenny Jones?

   Answer: Mrs. Waters

   Why: Fielding is careful with her title: she merely passed for the captain's wife and went by his name, with doubts about any real marriage.

3. 3 Hard

   Which attorney carries the message regarding Tom's true parentage?

   Answer: Mr. Dowling

   Why: Fielding draws the lawyer as a man in perpetual haste: he wished he could divide himself into twenty pieces, to be in twenty places at once.

4. 4 Easy

   In which English county does Tom Jones grow up?

   Answer: Somerset

   Why: Fielding himself was born in 1707 at Sharpham Park near Glastonbury, in the very county where he set Tom's boyhood home.

5. 5 Medium

   What historical rebellion disrupts Tom's journey to London in the novel?

   Answer: The Jacobite Rising

   Why: The action falls in the 1745 rising; a landlady even takes Sophia for Jenny Cameron, the Young Pretender's reputed mistress.

6. 6 Hard

   Which tutor argues that human virtue is based on the fit of things?

   Answer: Mr. Square

   Why: Fielding writes that Square measured all actions by the unalterable rule of right; his favourite phrase was the natural beauty of virtue.