Tom Jones| A Famous English Novel by Henry Fielding| British Literature Series by Prof. Sumita Roy

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:08]This video is the first of a series where we shall talk about British novels, British stories, or British fiction.

[00:00:21]This will be very useful for those who are appearing for NET National Eligibility Test in India or those who study literature.

[00:00:33]But of course, every video, as I tell you, is a great resource for listening for all of you who want to learn good English.

[00:00:46]Beginners can listen to it many times.

[00:00:50]Advanced learners can listen to it once or twice.

[00:00:55]And then, you will be well informed. You will be able to speak to various people about these books, and people will be impressed by your knowledge and your fluency of using English.

[00:01:12]Today, we have Tom Jones, the name of this book. It's a very fairly long title. I'm not giving you the entire title.

[00:01:24]It I'm just giving you Tom Jones, which is also the name of the most important character in this story.

[00:01:35]This is considered to be one of the earliest novels in the English language because novel writing was not very common.

[00:01:46]They were poetry and prose. All these were popular.

[00:01:51]This novel was written in the 18th century by the author Henry Fielding.

[00:01:59]Fielding was a very great writer. Many books he has written and this is one of them.

[00:02:06]Very popular and very long and involved story.

[00:02:13]The story begins with the birth of Tom and goes up to the time when he settles down in life happily.

[00:02:23]Such a story is called a Bildungsroman.

[00:02:29]This is a new word all of you can learn.

[00:02:32]Many of you have been asking for advanced vocabulary and specially the literature students, students of other competitive exams where English literature is tested, you will be able to use this term.

[00:02:47]Bildungsroman is a story, a novel, which talks about the life of or the growth of the hero from babyhood till he is, you know, old, till he is an adult. He gets married. That is the story here.

[00:03:10]Tom Jones is found in the bed of a very rich person who's a very nice person also.

[00:03:20]And his name is Allworthy.

[00:03:23]Allworthy means good at everything. He's worth his, you know, all the values which are there, generosity, kindness. He's a very rich man and he has all these uh good qualities.

[00:03:41]So, when he comes back from London to his um place, he finds that there's a small baby in his bed. He wonders who it is.

[00:03:52]His sister Bridget lives with him and she does not say anything.

[00:03:57]So, after a lot of research, they find that it is the child of one person called Jenny.

[00:04:06]Allworthy says Jenny cannot live here because she has done something wrong.

[00:04:12]She has produced a child which she has abandoned.

[00:04:16]And therefore, he sends her out.

[00:04:20]But he's a very kind-hearted person. So, he says that I will bring up this child.

[00:04:26]And since he's rich, he has many servants, they plan to bring him up.

[00:04:32]In the meantime, the sister gets married to a person who's very interested in money.

[00:04:42]Because the sister is the sister of a rich man, he thinks that all the money which the brother has should come to his children.

[00:04:52]They have one son.

[00:04:55]And this son also grows up with Tom. Both of them grow up together.

[00:05:04]But whereas Tom is very mischievous, very naughty, but very kind-hearted, we find that this young boy, I'm not giving you many names because sometimes people feel that names are difficult. But if you're appearing for an exam or if you're studying for literature for an exam, you need to know the names. That is why I'm giving you an outline and encouraging you to read the whole book.

[00:05:35]Those of you who are learning English can also find this book. I'm sure PDF version is available. Download it. It's a very long book. And you can learn much about the society and culture of 18th century England. You can also learn good English expressions, good English you know, fluency of reading and writing and speaking.

[00:06:03]So, these two boys are totally opposed to each other. Blifil is name is.

[00:06:09]And Blifil has, you know, he appears very nice, very good, but he is very crafty. And he constantly feels jealous of Tom. Because everybody likes Tom. In spite of his naughtiness, he's very generous. He's very sweet-tempered, charming.

[00:06:31]But, he has, as I told you, some bad qualities. As he's growing up, he starts looking at various women, having affairs with various women.

[00:06:45]There is one Molly.

[00:06:47]And then, he admits that, "Okay, Molly's child might be my child." People say, "That's terrible."

[00:06:55]But, he realizes that's not true.

[00:06:57]Because Molly is not a very nice person.

[00:07:01]She has affairs with everybody.

[00:07:04]There is another rich person in the neighborhood.

[00:07:07]And his daughter, Sophia, is what everybody, you know, looks at uh for as a marriage proposal for Blifil.

[00:07:18]Because Blifil is the person who's going to inherit everything which Allworthy has. Allworthy doesn't have uh children.

[00:07:26]So, the sister's son will get the entire property.

[00:07:33]They prefer that Sophia marries Blifil.

[00:07:37]But, Tom is also keen to marry uh Sophia, he does not wait to say anything because he might Sophia might think that his character is not good. But, Sophia also loves him. She doesn't say it, but she loves him.

[00:07:59]And when people try to force her to marry Blifil, she runs away.

[00:08:06]In the meantime, Tom has already been sent away because they did not like his behavior.

[00:08:14]Allworthy falls ill, and Tom serves him very well. But, when Allworthy recovers, he gets drunk, and he behaves like a drunkard. So, people say he's terrible.

[00:08:29]He should be sent away from here.

[00:08:31]Not realizing how much service, how much care he took of this old man when he was ill.

[00:08:40]So, now um Allworthy makes a will giving almost everything to Blifil, but some part of it he also gives to Tom because he's genuinely fond of Tom.

[00:08:55]In the meantime, Tom is away, and he has various adventures.

[00:09:02]In one of these adventures, we find that he fights a duel. A duel is, you know, a sword play where he kills his opponent and is put in jail.

[00:09:15]Luckily, he has many good friends, and his friends save him.

[00:09:20]He also finds that Jenny is not his mother.

[00:09:25]His mother is actually Allworthy's sister, and she did not say that she had given birth to this little child.

[00:09:37]In the meantime, Blifil tries to make Tom's life miserable saying many bad things about Tom.

[00:09:47]And at this point, Allworthy realizes that Blifil is a villain and gives everything to Tom.

[00:09:56]Since Tom has suddenly become rich and very important also because his birth is good, not of a poor mother, the father of Sophia is willing for their marriage. They get married and they have a comfortable life helping society completely.

[00:10:17]Fielding wrote this book as not only as a novel but as a social document. We have to remember that.

[00:10:26]This is based on a concept called picaresque.

[00:10:32]The picaro is a hero which we borrow from the Spanish book Don Quixote. So, this picaresque tradition where the hero keeps searching for adventures, he keeps moving, he keeps traveling searching for adventures.

[00:10:49]We have various themes here in this story. All the themes are related to values and growth and upbringing and family, society, a small place, you know, a county where these people live as opposed to the city. All these are very important points in the story. When you read this novel, you will be able to enjoy it.

[00:11:20]Another last thing which I would like to say is at the last part of the story, there are many letters.

[00:11:28]And that is also a tradition. Sometimes an entire novel was written as uh only letters, no description. And that is called as um you know, epistolary.

[00:11:44]These are terms which you should know, and if you read up much more about this, you will benefit.

[00:11:51]I hope all of you language and literature learners will benefit from this series of videos which we are going to bring to you.

[00:12:03]Thank you, and all the best.

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