Tom john novel summary sheet

Book I

The narrator introduces Squire Allworthy, telling readers that he "once lived (and perhaps lives still)" in Somerset and that he was not only one of the richest men in England but also kind and intelligent.

Meanwhile, through his relationship with Squire Western, Allworthy's boorish but affable neighbor, Tom slowly falls in love with the squire's daughter Sophia, who also comes to love him.

However, Tom cannot pursue Sophia because his girlfriend Molly, daughter to Black George, grows pregnant with what he believes to be his son.

Fielding’s purpose in the development of his characters, Tom in particular, is...

Fielding uses an omniscient narrator throughout the story, as well as the occasional interjection from Mr. Squire. He swears that she means nothing to him. She then heads to London, and Tom follows her.

While in London, Tom takes up with the promiscuous and wily Lady Bellaston, with whom Sophia is staying.

What's more, Mr. Fitzpatrick has been telling everybody honestly that he started the duel with Tom, and not the other way around. Squire Western decides that he violently hates Tom, and goes to Squire Allworthy to read him the riot act.

Squire Allworthy is sad to hear that Tom has apparently been seducing his neighbor's daughter.

She discovers he has slept with Mrs. Waters (a woman he rescues) and that he is mentioning her name to strangers, and she decides he must not love her. (Yes, that's after Tom has realized that he's in love with Sophia.) Mr. Blifil grabs Mr. Thwackum, and the two of them gang up on Tom in a brutal fistfight. The biggest obstacle to the Tom-Sophia romance (Tophia?

It's lucky that the two seem to like each other, since "Little Benjamin" turns out to be none other than Mr. Partridge, the schoolteacher whom Squire Allworthy convicted of being Tom's dad twenty years before. Why not? The next morning, he told his household that he would rear the foundling as his son. (This may seem like an absolutely insane idea, but it is slightly less insane in the eighteenth century when press-ganging still happened.

Since the squire is a widower and has no intention of remarrying, Bridget and any children she might have will inherit Squire Allworthy's crazy amounts of land when he dies.

For his part, Mr. Blifil knows that Sophia hates him. Squire Western insults Lord Fellamar for hoping to marry Sophia, and drags his daughter off to his inn. Of all the bad luck—Sophia was just here, at this very inn.

She has the hots for Tom, though she only half-notices her own feelings at first. (It's a shame this book takes place a long time before paternity tests.)

Meanwhile, Squire Allworthy's fortune makes his sister Bridget very attractive to guys who want to get rich quick.