num_pages: 222
description: The outrages that Jonathan Wild commits against the simple, virtuous Heartfree epitomize one of the most villainous but memorably comic figures in literature. Wild is methodically evil: this thefts and vices, violence and grand deceptions, are merely steppingstones in his progress toward "greatness."In writing about this sublime blackguard, Henry Fielding drew on his knowledge of London's Gin Lane, where he served as magistrate, on legends surrounding an actual archcriminal, and on the figure of the King's minister, Sir Robert Walpole, that nemesis whom Pope, Swift, and Gay lmapooned in their greatest works. Jonathan Wild is perhaps the Enlightenment's most ironic pageant of corruption--the book in which Fielding's dormant theme that "greatness" and "goodness" have no part in each other gleams with polished bitterness and gallows humor.
language: English
title: Jonathan Wild
titlecomplete: Jonathan Wild
genres: Fiction, English Literature, British Literature, Humor, Literature, 18th Century, Classics, Novels, Read For School, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 560
publisher: Signet