Henry Fielding--'The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon', 'Shamela', and Occasional Writings

This book completes the authoritative Wesleyan Edition of Fielding's nondramatic writings. It features two of Fielding's classic works: The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon written as he sailed to Portugal hoping, in vain, to recover his health; and Shamela, the hilarious parody of Richardson's Pamela that led to Joseph Andrews and the beginning of his career as novelist. The volume also includes every other work of Fielding's not to be found in the twelve previous volumes of the nondramatic writings. Here the reader will find in section I, Occasional Verse: 'The Masquerade'; the unfinished 'Cantos'; a burlesque of Pope's 'Dunciad'; 'Plain Truth'; 'A Dialogue between a Beau's Head and his Heels'; 'An Epistle to Mr. Lyttleton'; as well as three epilogues and a prologue. In section II, Occasional Prose: 'A Full Vindication of the Dutchess Dowager of Marlborough'; the translation of Aristophanes' 'Plutus, the God of Riches'; Preface to Sarah Fielding's Adventures of David Simple; 'The Female Husband'; 'Ovid's Art of Love Paraphrased'; Preface and letters xl-xliv of Sarah Fielding's Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple; and 'A Fragment of a Comment on L. Bolingbroke's Essays'. The appendicies include writings recently attributed to Fielding, supplementary material relating to the voyage to Lisbon, and the full the textual apparatus.

Martin C. Battestin, William R. Kenan, Jr Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Virginia, has published widely on 18th-century British literature. Cofounder of the authoritative Wesleyan Edition of Fielding's works, he has edited the major novels: Joseph Andrews (1966), Tom Jones (1974), and Amelia (1983). He is also author of Henry Fielding: A Life (1989, 1993), the authoritative biography.