ABSTRACT
David Simple launched Fielding’s career, but brought her neither fame nor fortune. Still, the success of the novel provided an opportunity to generate much-needed money by writing a sequel, which Fielding did with Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters of David Simple. A handsome two-volume work published by subscription, Familiar Letters comprises forty-four fictional letters (five written by Henry), two dialogues by family friend James Harris and an allegorical experiment entitled “A Vision.” 1 In creating this work, Fielding followed the examples of other novelists who took advantage of the “brands” they had already created. A generation earlier, Daniel Defoe capitalized on the success of The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) with The Further Adventures of Robison Crusoe (1719) and Serious Reflections During the Life & Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, With His Vision of the Angelic World (1720). Similarly, Fielding’s contemporary, Samuel Richardson, followed up his blockbuster Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) with Pamela, Part II (1741).
