Tom Jones review – this show should sizzle … but there’s absolutely zero chemistry here
This adaptation of Henry Fielding’s sexy period romance is recast as a tale of a moping wally falling for a dullard – and the spark never lights
April 2023
The Long Form by Kate Briggs review – motherhood and meaning
A day in the life of a mother and her newborn baby unfurls an investigation into how we find structure and meaning in the world – and in the novel
October 2021
What’s New Pussycat? review – high-voltage collision of two Tom Joneses
The 18th-century novel and Welsh crooner meet on 1960s Carnaby Street in a spirited jukebox musical
August 2021
Book of the day
The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach – a homage to 18th-century fiction
Jas Treadwell’s picaresque adventure is a virtuoso performance that resonates with our own strange times
November 2015
The long tale of the British short story
What makes the British short story special? In a trawl through thousands, Philip Hensher found a generous tradition that not only suits established writers but gives a platform to voices on the edge of society
October 2013
The 100 best novels
The 100 best novels: No 5 – Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749)
Tom Jones comes a riotous fifth in our list of the 100 greatest novels in English, writes Robert McCrum
September 2013
What's so funny about comic novels?
From Fielding and Austen to Wodehouse and Kingsley Amis, humour has always been at the heart of English literature. Jonathan Coe asks who makes us laugh today – and is humour now harder to achieve?
May 2012
10 of the best
John Mullan's 10 of the best: long walks
From Basho's haiku to Galgut's Lesotho
January 2012
10 of the best
John Mullan's 10 of the best: seductions
Chaucer to Coetzee
December 2011
10 of the best
John Mullan's 10 of the best: coaches
10 of the best
John Mullan's 10 of the best
September 2011
10 of the best
Ten of the best
Misdirected messages
June 2011
10 of the best
Ten of the best
John Mullan picks 10 of the best foundlings in literature
July 2008
Henry Fielding
"Now, in reality, the world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and has imagined them to be men of much greater profundity then they really are."
May 2004
A walk on the Wild side
Peter Ackroyd on Fielding's brilliant parody of the life of a professional villain in 18th-century London, Jonathan Wild
October 2003
The 100 best novels
The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list
From Don Quixote to American Pastoral, take a look at the 100 greatest novels of all time
January 1990
Master of the double act
Review: Battestin and Battestin biography of Henry Fielding
