1707-1754. English novelist whose narrative
power influenced the form and technique of
the novel and helped to make it the most
popular form of literature in England. In
1742 he parodied Richardson's novel Pamela in
his Joseph Andrews, which was followed by
Jonathan Wild the Great 1743; his masterpiece
Tom Jones 1749, which he described as a
`comic epic in prose'; and Amelia 1751. He
was appointed Justice of the Peace for
Middlesex and Westminster in 1748. In failing
health, he went to recuperate in Lisbon in
1754, writing on the way A Journal of a
Voyage to Lisbon.