Captain Booth, a half-pay officer, is thrown into a London prison after a corrupt hearing before a justice of the peace, and there meets an old acquaintance, Miss Matthews, who tells him her history. Released into debt and temptation, he leans on his wife Amelia, whose patience and goodness are tried by poverty, gambling and the schemes of predatory men.
Fielding’s darker, more serious last novel, published in 1751, shows the London he knew as a magistrate. Download the free EPUB.