Henry Fielding: A Literary Life characterizes Fielding's complex personality, in some ways full of contradiction, and yet resolved both by a deep knowledge of human nature, including his own, and by his innate social constructiveness and his gift for friendship and love. The book also details ways in which Fielding's complex attitudes contribute to the subject-matter of his plays and novels and to the rhetorical strategies that control their shape as well. It further shows that his work as lawyer, London magistrate, and social and political essayist was similarly informed.

Henry Fielding: A Literary Life characterizes Fielding's complex personality, in some ways full of contradiction, and yet resolved both by a deep knowledge of human nature, including his own, and by his innate social constructiveness and his gift for friendship and love. The book also details ways in which Fielding's complex attitudes contribute to the subject-matter of his plays and novels and to the rhetorical strategies that control their shape as well. It further shows that his work as lawyer, London magistrate, and social and political essayist was similarly informed.