Fielding takes the real Jonathan Wild, receiver of stolen goods and organiser of thieves, hanged at Tyburn in 1725, and writes his life in the solemn manner of a biography of a conqueror. Wild rises by betraying his own gang and preys on the trusting jeweller Heartfree, while the narrator gravely insists that his hero’s villainy is exactly the stuff of greatness.
A sustained masterpiece of irony aimed at politicians and great men, by the author of Tom Jones. Download the free EPUB.