The Adventures of David Simple: Containing an Account of His Travels Through the Cities of London and Westminster, in the Search of a Real Friend ; And, The Adventures of David Simple, Volume the Last : in which His History is Concluded

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University Press of Kentucky, 1998 - 399 pages
Sarah Fielding (1710-1768), the author of five novels, a children's story, an imaginative historical biography, a critical treatise on Clarissa, and a translation from the Greek of Xenophon, is among the most versatile and interesting eighteenth-century women writers.

The Adventures of David Simple (1744), Fielding's first and most celebrated novel, went through many English editions -- including a second edition heavily revised by her brother Henry -- and was translated into German and French.

The guileless hero, having been cheated by his hypocritical younger brother, sets out to find a "real friend". In recounting David's search, the novel depicts the derision with which almost everyone treats his sentimental attitudes to human nature. An important secondary character acts as a mouthpiece for some provocative feminist ideas.

This edition makes the original text of the novel available for the first time since 1744. It also reproduces Fielding's much darker sequel, Volume the Last (1753), in which a string of disasters befalls David and his family.

From inside the book

Contents

Book I
3
Substantive Variants between the First and Second Editions
350
Emendations
367
Copyright

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Anglia, Volumes 86-87

Snippet view - 1968

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