Title: Richardson and Fielding
First published: 1999
Description: "Richardson and Fielding: The Dynamics of a Critical Rivalry is the first book-length study of one of literature's most persistent and influential rivalries. Using an adaptation of Hans Jauss's reception theory, it surveys the recurring dichotomies projected onto Richardson and Fielding by all types of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century readers.

Even when the rival is not mentioned directly, readers usually make it pointedly clear that one author is being privileged at the other's expense."--BOOK JACKET. "Even apart from its serious implications for literary history, the story of the Richardson/Fielding rivalry is a fascinating source of critical passions, prejudices, scholarly irresponsibility, wit, and often surprising interrelations between the literary tastes and cultural environments of the day."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: History, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism, Theory, English fiction, History and criticism, English literature, history and criticism, 18th century
Places: Great Britain
People: Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Time periods: 18th century
LC classification: PR3667 .M53 1999