The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
- Pages
- about 164
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
When it was determined to extend the present edition of Fielding, not
merely by the addition of Jonathan Wild to the three universally popular
novels, but by two volumes of Miscellanies, there could be no doubt
about at least one of the contents of these latter. The Journal of a
Voyage to Lisbon, if it does not rank in my estimation anywhere near to
Jonathan Wild as an example of our author's genius, is an invaluable and
delightful document for his character and memory. It is indeed, as has
been pointed out in the General Introduction to this series, our main
source of indisputable information as to Fielding dans son naturel, and
its value, so far as it goes, is of the very highest. The gentle and
unaffected stoicism which the author displays under a disease which he
knew well was probably, if not certainly, mortal, and which, whether
mortal or not, must cause him much actual pain and discomfort of a kind
more intolerable than pain itself; his affectionate care for his family;
even little personal touches, less admirable, but hardly less pleasant
than these, showing an Englishman's dislike to be "done" and an
Englishman's determination to be treated with proper respect, are
scarcely less noticeable and important on the biographical side than the
unimpaired brilliancy of his satiric and yet kindly observation of life
and character is on the side of literature.
There is, as is now well known since Mr. Dobson's separate edition of
the Voyage, a little bibliographical problem about the first appearance
of this Journal in 1755. The best known issue of that year is much
shorter than the version inserted by Murphy and reprinted here, the
passages omitted being chiefly those reflecting on the captain, etc.,
and so likely to seem invidious in a book published just after the
author's death, and for the benefit, as was expressly announced, of his
family.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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