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Jonathan Wild (1741)

di Henry Fielding

Altri autori: Vedi la sezione altri autori.

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
520646,469 (3.58)43
Fiction. Mystery. HTML:

One of the masters of literary satire and humor writing, Henry Fielding takes on true crime in this novel, offering readers a wild ride as tumultuous and twisted as the book's original tongue-twister of a title: The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. This exaggerated but mostly true account details the life of criminal mastermind Jonathan Wild, a top English policemen who also ran a notorious nationwide network of thieves in the early eighteenth century.

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  1. 00
    Jack Sheppard di William Harrison Ainsworth (rebeccanyc)
    rebeccanyc: Jack Sheppard presents a different view of Jonathan Wild, and is a much more delightfully fun read, whereas Jonathan Wild is more satirical and, for me, less fun. As I said in my review, Wild is a much more enjoyable villain in Jack Sheppard.… (altro)
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» Vedi le 43 citazioni

A wickedly funny satire, with lots of excellent threads to be pulled apart and explored. Fielding's experimentation with fictional forms, as well as his expert wit and deep knowledge of the political and legal cultures this book skewers, make it well worth a read. The appended biographical sketch of the real-life Jonathan Wild is a good complement to the piece, as is the preface to the volume of Fielding's works in which is was originally published. ( )
2 vota JBD1 | Sep 24, 2014 |
Satire this funny is a lost art. Maybe it's just that I'm particularly irritated by contemporary great-man worship (see especially: presidential biographies, founding-father blather, Darwinismism), but this was a nice breath of fresh air. Why don't more novelists these days write about the world instead of writing memoirs about their navel-fluff? I do not know. ( )
  stillatim | Dec 29, 2013 |
I was eager to read this book after reading the delightful Jack Sheppard by William Harrison Ainsworth, in which Jonathan Wild, a historical figure, is featured as the villain of the tale, both because I looked forward to learning more about Wild and because this is an example of a very early novel. Alas, although I enjoyed reading it, I was also disappointed for several reasons.

The novel is a satire, in which Wild is considered "great" because he focuses single-mindedly on his own advancement and benefits, without indulging in the "good" "weaknesses" of compassion, honesty, fairness, or consideration of others. Indeed, Wild, along with his mentors and protegees is a sterling example of a "great" man as he regularly steals, incites others to steal, lies, and deceives all around him. One theory is that Fielding was actually satirizing several people high in the British government at the time.

Fielding more or less keeps the plot moving along, with many asides to the reader (an early novel version of metafiction?), although there is a digression or two. My problem is that based on what I learned about Wild from Jack Sheppard and, in fact, on what is historically known about him, this novel takes Wild on a different path, in that he is a thief, but not the notorious "thief-taker" of London, who captured thieves and others and turned them in to the authorities. (Fielding apparently knew he was taking only one aspect of Wild for his satire, and the Oxford World Classic edition I read includes a contemporary biographical sketch of Wild.) Wild is a much more enjoyable villain in Jack Sheppard.

My other problem with the book was that while the satire is witty and fun, it wears thin after a while. It also took me a while to get used to 18th century spelling conventions, in which nouns seem to be capitalized, although I realized that after a while I stopped noticing this. I did find it interesting to read so early a novel, when the approach and style we are used to from, say, 19th century novelists were not in place. I also appreciated the extensive notes which helped explain classical and other references.
6 vota rebeccanyc | Feb 27, 2013 |
Not the greatest of 18th century novels by a long shot, but it's a quick, entertaining read.

Fielding obviously made good use of his legal experience in putting together this satirical crime story, very loosely based on the life of a real London fence of the 1720s. The whole thing is set up as a spoof of the "inspirational lives of great men" idea, with Fielding putting forward a mock-serious argument that "GREAT" criminals are actually better models for us to imitate than politicians or generals. We are supposed to spot the parallels between Wild's career and Robert Walpole's, something that probably won't be at the forefront of most modern readers' minds. It doesn't really matter: the joke would work just as well if you filled in Bush, Blair, or Berlusconi. Crime may change with the centuries, but politics is still the same as ever... ( )
1 vota thorold | Sep 30, 2011 |
Amazon Book Description: The real-life Jonathan Wild, gangland godfather and self-styled "Thieftaker General", controlled much of the London underworld until he was executed for his crimes in 1725. Even during his lifetime his achievements attracted attention; after his death balladeers sang of his exploits, and satirists made connections between his success and the triumph of corruption in high places. Fielding built on these narratives to produce one of the greatest sustained satires in the English language. Published in 1743, at a time when the modern novel had yet to establish itself as a fixed literary form, Jonathan Wild is at the same time a brilliant black comedy, an incisive political satire, and a profoundly serious exploration of human "greatness" and "goodness", as relevant today as it ever was.
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  billyfantles | Sep 15, 2006 |
Jonathan Wild is a paradox sustained with, perhaps the strain, but above all, with the decisiveness, flexibility and exhilaration of a scorching trumpet call which does not falter for one moment and even dares very decorative and difficult variations on the way to its assured conclusion.
aggiunto da SnootyBaronet | modificaThe New Statesman, V.S. Pritchett
 

» Aggiungi altri autori (12 potenziali)

Nome dell'autoreRuoloTipo di autoreOpera?Stato
Fielding, Henryautore primariotutte le edizioniconfermato
Amory, HughA cura diautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Bree, LindaNotesautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Plumb, J HPrefazioneautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
Rawson, ClaudeIntroduzioneautore secondarioalcune edizioniconfermato
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As it is necessary that all great and surprising events, the designs of which are laid, conducted, and brought to perfection by the utmost force of human invention and art, should be produced by great and eminent men, so the lives of such may be justly and properly styled the quintessence of history.
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This gentleman had two qualities of a great man, viz., undaunted courage, and an absolute contempt of those ridiculous distinctions of meum and tuum, which would cause endless disputes did not the law happily decide them by converting both into suum.
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Fiction. Mystery. HTML:

One of the masters of literary satire and humor writing, Henry Fielding takes on true crime in this novel, offering readers a wild ride as tumultuous and twisted as the book's original tongue-twister of a title: The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. This exaggerated but mostly true account details the life of criminal mastermind Jonathan Wild, a top English policemen who also ran a notorious nationwide network of thieves in the early eighteenth century.

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