These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
other suitable decorations of death, such as physicians, &c.
Chapter i – Containing little or nothing.
Read interpretation
This famously self-deflating chapter heading exemplifies Fielding’s playful, ironic narrative persona, setting up expectations only to mock them before a single word of the chapter is read. (Chapter 23: Chapter ix – A proof of the infallibility of the foregoing receipt,)
Schemes of Lady Bellaston for the ruin of Jones
Read interpretation
This chapter title concisely announces the antagonistic designs of a prominent character, heightening suspense about the hero’s fate. (Chapter 118: Chapter vii – In which Mr Western pays a visit to his sister, in)
Read interpretation
Fielding’s sardonic wit reduces the medical profession to mere ornamental accompaniments to mortality, a dark joke that treats doctors as stage props in the theatre of dying. (Chapter 23: Chapter ix – A proof of the infallibility of the foregoing receipt,)