Tom Jones: Fielding’s Novel on Nothing for Everyone

Nothing, says Fielding in his essay on the subject, 1 is to be found wherever there is not something. Nothing is in books and at the bottom of the historian’s enquiry. Nothing is what our eyes and ears tell us about the world, and it is the upshot of our ambitions and theoretical systems. Nothing is what virtue, integrity and learning are sure to bring their possessors; and when people are void of the virtues and vices for which we respect or condemn them, our moral judgements are nothing. Nothing is what Tom Jones , Fielding’s novel on human nature, is about. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.