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 ConcludedUniversity 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
Results 1-3 of 58
... Wish . She spent some time in the deepest Melancholy , and felt all the Misery which attends a Woman who has many things to wish , but knows not positively which she wishes most . Some- times her Imagination would represent Mr. Simple ...
... wish there was no such thing in the World . I am very certain , the Woman who is pos- sessed of it , unless she can be so peculiarly happy as to live with People void of Envy , had better be without it . The Fate of those Persons who ...
... Wishes is but too often the Beginning of our Sorrows . " 2 And farther to shew , that in a Society united by well directed Affections , and a Similitude of Mind , in which not one Individual has a selfish View , or a single Wish that is ...
Contents
Book I | 3 |
Substantive Variants between the First and Second Editions | 350 |
Emendations | 367 |
Copyright | |
Other editions - View all
The Adventures of David Simple: Containing an Account of His Travels Through ... Sarah Fielding No preview available - 2018 |