Tom Jones

By: Henry Fielding

Narrated by: Bill Homewood

Length: 37 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Tom Jones, a foundling, is brought up by the kindly Mr. Allworthy as if he were his own son. Forced to leave the house as a young man after tales of his disgraceful behavior reach his benefactor's ears, he sets out in utter despair, not only because of his banishment but because he has now lost all hope of gaining the hand of the beautiful Sophia. But she too is forced to flee her parental home to escape an undesirable marriage and their stories and adventures intertwine.

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Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks

terrific story BUT

even the great w. somerset maugham could, on occasion, bore you to distraction, so his reaction to tom jones -- the book, the classic, not the singer, who came much later -- is of little consequence. he found the book unreadable, boring.

well, the truth is that there's a great deal of utter waffle in this book, which could have been cut, snipped, abbreviated with no ill effect to the story, and in fact maugham did just that. as editor of a series of classic books he shortened tom jones and created a totally readable, totally delightful, version that could be appreciated by any mid-20th century reader.

i find maugham's edited version quite satisfactory, and a delight to read. and maugham's version is only fielding's own version, as edited by a regular modern editor. any other editor today would have done the same, if this had been a manuscript submitted by a modern writer.

so listening to a reading of the original version, with its overgrowth of diversions, digressions, and latin quotes is somewhat distracting. it's easy to lose the story, or the progress of the tale, and even in maugham's shortened edition there comes the point -- roughly around page 260 -- where the story finally grinds to a halt.

but carry on, the book ends gloriously and you would wish that it could continue for ever on. this is a classic, after all.

so my recommendation would be to read the book in some form, study notes, see the movie, read the novel or the maugham version, and THEN get down to the audible version. a great reader. but it took me to around book three or 15 per cent of the text, before i could finally get into the story and the language -- and this, despite having read the book and some secondary material about it. perhaps reading the printed book alongside listening to the audio format may provide a help in finding an easier and faster access to the author's circuitous style.

if you find the book inaccessible, worry not. you've got w. somerset maugham on your side. or try to find a copy of his shortened version. it is by no means a "simplified" or "reader's digest" edition. it's simply a book for modern readers.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Fantastic narration

Kudos to the narrator. Each character is carved out with diamond precision. Great story. Great narration.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

"Around the world the trip begins with a kiss"

I enjoyed this 1749 comic novel follows the life and adventures of young Tom Jones in a picaresque panorama of 18th-century Britain.

Squire Allworthy found Tom in his bed as a newborn infant. The kind but gullible Allworthy raises Tom, who falls in love with the attractive neighbor Sophia Western. Unfortunately, Sophia's irascible, short-tempered dad has agreed, against Sophia's wishes, to give her hand in marriage to Squire Allworthy's repulsive and hateful nephew Blifil.

Blifil's contrivances combined with Tom's boyish excesses cause Allworthy to expel Tom from the Allworthy estate, which throws Tom into a series of adventures over and around a series of obstacles in order to learn the mystery of his birth, gain his fortune and win Sophia's hand.


"Roam if you want to / without anything but the love we feel"

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

More than you think it is

The movie is good, but it cannot capture the wonderful insights and delightful language in Fielding's writing. The characters are fine representatives of country life both above and below stairs. And the narrator is one of the very best. All in all, this is a listen you'll love.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Flawed Performance

The narration is marred by many character voices that are difficult to listen to, especially a strained falsetto used for lower-class women. As there are many long monologues, this becomes extremely irritating, especially in such a long book.

Tom Jones is of course a milestone early novel, and on the whole enjoyable. I must admit though that I do find the prose style often long-winded, making it less than ideal for audio, where skimming is impossible.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Plenty of Shenanigans

I read along with the Audible of the novel which I found a highly delightful and entertaining experience.
The narrator, Bill Homewood, who performed the audio version of the work was excellent doing the various characters as well as the invisible narrator (author) of the story. The Synopsis is as follows:

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire—though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.

It is rather brilliant, and there is no lack of shenanigans as we follow Jones through his history and the reader never knows when and where the author will abruptly go off on a tangent, told in a most eloquent manner, end with a flourish and no doubt tossed his quill down and took a bow. I am either taken in by some farce or thoroughly enchanted by this author. As Fielding is rather the loquacious writer this read comes in Audible time at almost 38 hours or roughly 1,000 pages but worth every minute spent on it.

Hilarious story!

I read the novel years ago and loved it. This narration was excellent, providing the flavor of the period.

Excellent voiced reading

Excellent voiced reading by Bill Homewood. The female voices are mostly excellent, and that of Squire Weston is remarkable and hilarious.

Dated story, excellent reader

Warning, if you like a very slow delicious story to unfold over a really long period, you will relish this book. If you find that slow and boring, you will hate it. The only rapid part came about 2 hours before the end, when suddenly all loose ends were tied up, and you had to wrack your brain to remember 40 hours previously, who was Jenny Jones? Did Mr Allworthy even have a sister?

I did not like this story. Not the speed, I love classic literature and the way of writing. The problem was the story spent about 30 hours persecuting a rather insipid girl into marrying someone she didn't like, because he had a lot of money. This is so foreign to a modern audience who would not believe that a father loved his daughter, whilst trying to make her thoroughly miserable.

Tom himself does not appeal to me as any kind of character a girl would like. He may have a good heart, but he is foolish and makes stupid mistakes at every turn, mostly due to sleeping with every woman he can find whilst claiming to love Sophia. What kind of love is that? The men are patted on the back for conquests, the women who do the same are whores. Not a good read for a modern girl.

I ended up feeling sorry for Blifell. Not highly recommended.

3 of 11 people found this review helpful