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The Columbia History of the British NovelThe mode of this early work is primarily ironic and satirical, but the targets of its satire are many, and sometimes apparently incompatible with each other; and the ironic persona who delivers the tale suffers strange transformations, sometimes admitting other points of view into his narration in the form of references to the opinions of "weak men," sometimes temporarily (as if inadvertently) assuming those alternative views himself. Fielding builds the satirical fable of Jonathan Wild around the life story of an infamous criminal of that name, convicted and hanged in London in 1725. Wild was not simply a thief: he presided over a substantial and organized gang of thieves, and, with an audacity that seems -114- to have impressed as well as offended his contemporaries, he also garnered reward money by helping victims regain what his own gang members had taken. He exploited the system for capturing thieves as well, informing on members of his gang who challenged his authority in some way. Thus, without carrying out a robbery himself, Wild might profit at several levels from the event ...» |
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