Forays into literary criticism

Both Familiar Letters and The Governess show Fielding’s continuing interest in reading and understanding texts. In each of these works, Fielding halts the forward action of a traditional novel while her narrators and characters interpret the stories they have read or shared with each other. The plots, to the degree that they exist, play subordinate roles as Fielding focuses the reader’s attention on how interpretation shapes perception and influences decision making. It is not surprising, then, that in the months following The Governess, Fielding published two short works of literary criticism. The first, Remarks on “Clarissa,” was published on January 7, 1749, just a week after The Governess. The second, A Comparison between the Horace of Corneille and the Roman Father of Mr Whitehead, was published in March 1750. ¹ To be sure, these works contain novelistic features. Each, for example, presents characters communicating to each other within a specific setting. There is also a semblance of a story line and, particularly in Remarks on “Clarissa,” a limited degree of character development. In this way, the works, like Fielding’s earlier publications, are hybrids that resist generic classification.