The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

To conclude, as there are not to be found a worthier man and woman, than this fond couple, so neither can any be imagined more happy. They preserve the purest and tenderest affection for each other, an affection daily encreased and confirmed by mutual endearments and mutual esteem.

Foundling discovery through Blifil's malice, picaresque journey, birth revelation, and marriage form the comic epic of a good-hearted rogue with morally generous closure, so plot scores 91.

Upon opening the cloathes, to his great surprize he beheld an infant, wrapt up in some coarse linen, in a sweet and profound sleep, between his sheets. He stood some time lost in astonishment at this sight; but, as good nature had always the ascendant in his mind, he soon began to be touched with sentiments of compassion for the little wretch before him.

Tom, Sophia, Allworthy, Blifil, and Partridge are typed but warmly individuated in Fielding's moral taxonomy without flattening into allegory only, so cast scores 88.

During which the artful fair so slily and imperceptibly carried on her attack, that she had almost subdued the heart of our heroe before she again repaired to acts of hostility. To confess the truth, I am afraid Mr Jones maintained a kind of Dutch defence, and treacherously delivered up the garrison, without duly weighing his allegiance to the fair Sophia.

Eighteen books with authorial digressions and long set pieces between crises maintain comic momentum rather than thriller tempo — rewarding but leisurely, so pace scores 82.

It was now the middle of May, and the morning was remarkably serene, when Mr Allworthy walked forth on the terrace, where the dawn opened every minute that lovely prospect we have before described to his eye; and now having sent forth streams of light, which ascended the blue firmament before him, as harbingers preceding his pomp, in the full blaze of his majesty rose the sun.

Fielding's comic prose — the terrace prospect, the foundling in the sheets, the author addressing the reader — balances satire and benevolence with an ease that founded the English comic novel, so prose scores 87.

In that part of the western division of this kingdom which is commonly called Somersetshire, there lately lived, and perhaps lives still, a gentleman whose name was Allworthy, and who might well be called the favourite of both nature and fortune.

Somersetshire, the Western estate, the Upton inn, and London society map Georgian England as a moral geography of inn, manor, and metropolis, so world scores 85.

Here, having spent some minutes on his knees—a custom which he never broke through on any account—he was preparing to step into bed, when, upon opening the cloathes, to his great surprize he beheld an infant, wrapt up in some coarse linen, in a sweet and profound sleep, between his sheets.

Book I's discovery of the infant between Allworthy's sheets establishes the foundling plot before the first chapter of biography — inviting in benevolence rather than shock, so hook scores 86.

Reader, take care. I have unadvisedly led thee to the top of as high a hill as Mr Allworthy's, and how to get thee down again, without convulsion or sprain, which is sometimes apt to befall those who attempt such a descent, is a matter of much greater difficulty than the bringing thee up.

The comic epic in prose, authorial intrusions, and the "bill of fare to the feast" founded the English novel's metafictional tradition before Sterne and Austen, so innov scores 92.

To conclude, as there are not to be found a worthier man and woman, than this fond couple, so neither can any be imagined more happy. They preserve the purest and tenderest affection for each other, an affection daily encreased and confirmed by mutual endearments and mutual esteem.

Tom and Sophia married, Western reconciled, and Allworthy's bounty form a morally generous comic resolution that rewards good nature without denying the hero's follies, so ending scores 88.