The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great (or just Jonathan Wild) is a novel written by Henry Fielding. Released in 1743, it tells of Jonathan Wild's G R E A T life and serves as a (largely subtextual) satire of the rule of Prime Minister Robert Walpole (an adversary of Fielding's due to his passing of the Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 and various other political differences).
Jonathan Wild is stated to be Fielding's first written novel, with its construction beginning before Shamela and Joseph Andrews.
Characters[]
- Jonathan Wild
- Heartfree
- Friendly
- Miss Theodosia Snap
- Miss Straddle
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
Penguin Classics paperback edition (either 1982 or 1986, edited by David Nokes)
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.
Full summary[]
TBA
Quotes[]
- As it is impossible that any man endowed with rational faculties, and being in a state of freedom, should willingly agree, without some motive of love or friendship, absolutely to sacrifice his own interest to that of another; it becomes necessary to impose upon him, to persuade him, that his own good is designed, and that he will be a gainer by coming into those schemes, which are, in reality, calculated for his destruction. And this, if I mistake not, is the very essence of that excellent art, called the art of politics.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Jonathan Wild frontispiece (1).jpg (180 KB)")
See also[]
- The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild by Daniel Defoe
- Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
- The Beggar's Opera by John Gay
- True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
- The Thief-Taker Hangings by Aaron Skirboll
- A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss
- The Phantom's Jonathan Wild duology (King of Thieves and Double Cross)
- The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
Sources[]
- Wikipedia page for Jonathan Wild and Henry Fielding
- Goodreads