Tom Jones cover art

Tom Jones

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

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Tom Jones

By: Henry Fielding
Narrated by: Bill Homewood
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About this listen

Tom Jones, a foundling, is brought up by the kindly Mr. Allworthy as if he were his own son. Forced to leave the house as a young man after tales of his disgraceful behavior reach his benefactor's ears, he sets out in utter despair, not only because of his banishment but because he has now lost all hope of gaining the hand of the beautiful Sophia. But she too is forced to flee her parental home to escape an undesirable marriage and their stories and adventures intertwine.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks Classics Drama & Plays European World Literature

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Excellent voiced reading by Bill Homewood. The female voices are mostly excellent, and that of Squire Weston is remarkable and hilarious.

Excellent voiced reading

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Really enjoyed listening to this old book. Predictable story but so so enjoyable to listen to

Brilliant narration

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Returned to this book after about 30 years. Loved it even more than the first time round. A wonderful mixture of philosophical musings and farce.
Extremely well read by Bill Homewood

Tom Jones is altogether marvellous

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A classic with narrative plots sharing much in common with other novels published within 150 years before or after. For example, there are clear similarities between Austin''s romances or Don Quixote and Sancho Panza with Fielding's hero and his friend Partridge.

If you can show patience for many archaic tropes and literary devices, e.g. Fielding frequently addresses the reader and offers epistles upon philosophy, literature, art and human nature. This is revealing in relation to C18th ideas but generally it it quite tedious. However, stick with it and you will be rewarded.

Be Patient

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Quirky, intriguing and funny, but at times somewhat repetitive. One gets the impression that the author struggled to let go of his reader’s attention having attained it. Definitely worth the read/listen.

Satire and sentimentality, great fun

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This has been such a joy. Although I had seen adaptations of Tom Jones, nothing compares to the book. A perfect novel with characters of such depth you cannot fail to have empathy with them.

A Timeless Classic

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Goodness, Fielding is verbose. And pleased with himself. He constantly attacked Richardson’s Pamela, but at least Richardson stuck to the point. But having said that, the reader was wonderfully good at presenting a huge number of characters.

Great reading of a cumbersome text

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Warning, if you like a very slow delicious story to unfold over a really long period, you will relish this book. If you find that slow and boring, you will hate it. The only rapid part came about 2 hours before the end, when suddenly all loose ends were tied up, and you had to wrack your brain to remember 40 hours previously, who was Jenny Jones? Did Mr Allworthy even have a sister?

I did not like this story. Not the speed, I love classic literature and the way of writing. The problem was the story spent about 30 hours persecuting a rather insipid girl into marrying someone she didn't like, because he had a lot of money. This is so foreign to a modern audience who would not believe that a father loved his daughter, whilst trying to make her thoroughly miserable.

Tom himself does not appeal to me as any kind of character a girl would like. He may have a good heart, but he is foolish and makes stupid mistakes at every turn, mostly due to sleeping with every woman he can find whilst claiming to love Sophia. What kind of love is that? The men are patted on the back for conquests, the women who do the same are whores. Not a good read for a modern girl.

I ended up feeling sorry for Blifell. Not highly recommended.

Dated story, excellent reader

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