What is the position of Henry Fielding in the history of English literature?
Henry Fielding was the first of all the 18th century English novelists to write the "comic epic in prose”, and the first to give the modern novel its structure and style. Before him, the narration of the novel was either in the epistolary form or through the mouth of the hero. Fielding used “the third person narration” in which the author remains the omniscient God. Thus, “He” can not only represent the behaviours of the characters, but also the internal workings of their mind. In form, Fielding retains a grand epic style and keeps to a realistic representation of common life as it is. So, he has been regarded as ^Father of the English novel. ”(P121)
