Henry Fielding’s "Tom Jones": Homeric Epithets and Personifications with a Satirical Twist

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Henry Fielding felt great concern towards the embellished stylization of epic novels, and in order to relay his critiques of this popularized genre, he constructed an epic parody to reveal the turgid grandiose nature of such works through a sarcastic spoof. Commenced with his mordant invocation of a muse, Henry Fielding’s epic parody, Tom Jones emphasizes droll concern with the classical epic style by christening Homeric epithets and personifications with a satirical twist. Henry Fielding dives into the Homeric form with extensive invocations and catalogues to the Muse. By introducing the central plot of the epic parody with, “Ye Muses…who love to sing battles…all things are not in the power of all,” all ‘classical scholars’ can patently understand the purpose this serves to the orator...

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