Fiction & Literature Classics, World Literature, Fiction Subjects, English Literature

Tom Jones (4 Cassettes)

Name: Tom Jones (4 Cassettes)
Author: Henry Fielding
ISBN: 9780553525267

by Henry Fielding, Hallam Tennyson (Other), Bbc Radio (Other)

Write a review

Overview

One of the great comic novels in the English language, Tom Jones was an instant success when it was published in 1749: Ten thousand copies were sold in its first year. A foundling, Tom is discovered one evening by the benevolent Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget and brought up as a son in their household until it is time for him to set out in search of both his fortune and his true identity. Amorous, high-spirited, and filled with what Fielding called "the glorious lust of doing good" but with a tendency toward dissolution, Tom Jones is one of the first characters in fiction to display legitimate sides of human virtue and vice. Now, Tom Jones has been brought to television in a magnificent new co-production from A&E Network and BBC television. Max Beesley stars as Tom, with Samantha Morton (who appeared in A&E's Emma and Jane Eyre) as Sophia. The cast also includes Benjamin Whitrow, Brian Blessed, Frances De La Tour, and John Sessions. Tom Jones is directed by Metin Huseyin, produced by Suzan Harrison, with a screenplay by Simon Burke.

The comic history of a handsome youth who is adopted by the local Squire. 2 cassettes.

Synopsis

Often considered the first, and one of the greatest, of all English novels and here presented in an exclusive BBC recording, Tom Jones is an unforgettable listening experience. Bawdy, witty, sharply observant of society and human nature, it's a romp through eighteenth-century England with one of the most companionable and delightful fictional characters ever created.

Fielding chronicles the picaresque adventures of Tom, an illegitimate foundling who, despite a generous heart, has a naive inability to resist a pretty face and is banished from the Squire's house. But when the girl he really loves, Sophia, runs away to escape her arranged marriage to his rival, the despicable Blifil, Tom pursues her to London, embarking on a series of riotous and frequently amorous adventures involving a wonderfully engaging gallery of characters.

His travels take us into a rich and often immoral society, filled with amorous encounters, narrow escapes, and colorful, larger-than-life characters who offer a realistic, if often satirical, look at the bustling England of the times. Not so much a rake's progress as the exploits of an innocent abroad, Tom Jones is a splendidly funny and often touching odyssey in which good ultimately triumphs over the corruption of the human spirit.

This lavish production, originally conceived for BBC broadcast and produced by the world's foremost creators of radio entertainment, combines a full cast of more than 30 actors with stirring originally composed music and sound effects to bring Henry Fielding's novel to vivid life.