Rating: 
Summary: Really three and a half stars; enjoyable but escapist.
Review: Tackling 'Tom Jones' took a ton of time! Yet, I'm forced to admit, I really didn't like it all that much, though I found it sort of quaint and charming. Sure, I love the warm blooded, noble spirited Tom and Allworthy and Sophia; understood the oafish, but decent bumpkin Western and loathed the sneaking Bilfil. However, the book's predictable boy gets girl and reinstated etc happy ending rang false to me, being entirely too predictable. From the get go, I knew that Tom would get the gorgeous Sophia, and, somehow, end up rich; I only wished he'd done it on his own rather than through the mawkish trick Fielding plays of having him inherit wealth. Nor was Bilfil getting his just deserts a suprise. All these things, the reader had a feeling would happen. The only question was how. I will never question Fielding's mastery of plotting, but, since we all knew how it would shake out in the end, what was the point? One can sense in Fielding the overly sentimental English novel which blossomed with Dickens, which is an art form which doesn't, unfortuneatly, appeal to me. Only after Conrad, I feel, does the English novel take on the weight it deserves. My other problem with the work was its sheer wordiness... Though in this, I must admit, I'm sort of spoiled by a love for Hemmingway's precision, though not his attitudes. All in all, I enjoyed "Tom Jones", but found it not unlike those charming Hollywood films of the thirties and forties, filled with good feelings and happy endings, but lacking a certain depth that scrupulous realism can lend a work.
Rating: 
Summary: funny, witty, consistently on the mark
Review: This book defies nineteenth-and-twentieth-century notions of verisimilitude. His ironic and amusing protestations to the contrary, the author takes great liberties, and this circumstance is perfectly consonant with his manifest aesthetic and the literary ideals of his time. These ideals are different from but not inferior to the ideals of a later age. Unless one skips all the many interpolated essays in which the author imposes himself upon the work, one will understand that it is anything but sentimental. It spares no target its caustic humor--but if one skips these essays one doesn't read the book: they are integral to it (as the author's eighteenth-century aesthetic dictates it should be).Also recommended (for virginalists too): PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
Rating:
Summary: The predecessor to british lit addictions...
Review: This was the first book I read in this literary period and genre, and was also the cause of my love affair with 18th century british satire. Not only is Fielding worth reading, but his essays, books, novels and plays are fantastic insights into Fielding's political impressions of the age. Do not stop with this book...read as much Fielding as you can get your hands on. I would also recommend Tobias Smollet and Daniel Defoe's lesser known stuffs. If you seek emotional balance, turn to Samuel Richardson's stuff and then go back to Fielding again. The Pamela/Shamela dynamic is a fantastic read.
Rating:
Summary: Tom Jones: The First Anti-Hero
Review: To be fair, Tom Jones himself is not much of a character. He loves the fair Sophia with a passion wider than the sky; but his darned hormones keep getting in the way. The interesting characters are those who come to his aid and those--even funnier--who plot against him.
This classic novel pits the world of gentility against the common man--and guess who comes out smelling like a rat! You'll need patience to work through so many pages, but it will be rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: Some of the finest prose ever written
Review: Tom Jones is a sophisticated, beautifully written novel about a fondling who ends up becoming a dashing lover. Do not miss the stunning essays which open each section. They count among the finest and most thoughtfully written prose in the English language. A book to be read at a leisurely pace on a summer holiday.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading...
Review: Tom Jones is an excellent book, and although it is very long, it continues to entertain the reader with action throughout. The characters Fielding produces are wonderful, especially our hero, Tom Jones, and his sidekick. You find yourself rooting for poor Tom during his escapades, even though he has some self-induced moral trip-ups. You know he will eventually get his girl, but the reader is totally left in the dark as to how it will finally happen. The last part of the book unravels itself in a very entertaining manner as Tom goes from the lowest of the low to being on top of the world. I would definitely recommned this book to anybody who has an interest in classic literature.
Rating:
Summary: It's not unusual...
Review: Tom Jones is probably one of the greatest novels in all of English literature. I imagine some might be put off by the length and by its designation as a classic (something which Mark Twain said was frequently praised and rarely read). Tom Jones does not deserve to be ignored since it is a riotous rollercoster of a book filled with comic vignettes and blows against the self-satisfied and pompous. It is a book that not only is instructional, but is considerate enough to give the reader a good time while doing so. Though frequently termed an immoral book, Tom Jones holds up rather well in the early 21st century. Even Fielding's comic characters seem to have a dimension often lacking in 18th and 19th century novels. Fielding is a genius.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and hilarious
Review: Tom Jones was probably the best novel I have ever had the opportunity to read, the very memory of certain incidents in the novel can still make me laugh. Henry Fielding was an absolute genius with an acute grasp of the nature of man and a subtle wit. Although Tom Jones was a scandel when it first emerged, and continues to be judged so by some, it is really an excellent novel which I would recommend to anyone who doesn't mind reading with a dictionary near at hand.
Rating:
Summary: A hillarious romp
Review: Undoubtedly, this is Fielding's master work. Few other novels can stand comparison to the wit and wild humour of Tom Jones, and the touching misadventures of its characters. Epoch making in its time, none of its charm and worth has faded. You will be hard put to find another novel quite like it. It displays much of the risque writing typical of the 18th century novel, though not to the level of, say, Defoe (and certainly not de Sade!). It is a hillarious romp, which also holds a mirror to some of the attitudes and foibles of 18th century Britain.
The Wordsworth Classics edition is inexpensive and perfectly serviceable - an excellent choice if you just want to be able to read the novel and aren't looking for a library edition.
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