Fielding (English Men of Letters Series)
Excerpt
From a critical point of view, the works of Fielding have
received
abundant examination at the hands of a long line of
distinguished
writers. Of these, the latest is by no means the least; and
as Mr.
Leslie Stephen’s brilliant studies, in the recent edition
de luxe and
the Cornhill Magazine, are now in every one’s hands,
it is perhaps no
more than a wise discretion which has prompted me to confine
my
attention more strictly to the purely biographical side of the
subject.
In the present memoir, therefore, I have made it my duty,
primarily, to
verify such scattered anecdotes respecting Fielding as have come
down to
us; to correct (I hope not obtrusively) a few mis-statements which
have
crept into previous accounts; and to add such supplementary details
as I
have been able to discover for myself.
