ABSTRACT
By the middle of the century (1740-54) three great novelists had permanently modified the art of English fiction:1 of these Richardson dilated the short story or “novel,” as it was called before his day, by means of psychological or sentimental detail; Fielding added structure, style, and a realistic attitude towards life; and Smollett excelled in the invention and crisp presentation of unforgettably vivid burlesque episode. Through these men fiction acquired a sense of pattern or structure, richness of varied detail, and gravity as well as comedy. All three were critics of manners. Fielding was both an artist and a critic of his art, which he analyzed in brilliant essays or prefaces and which he dignified by associating it with the noblest of narrative forms, the epic. As psychologists the three vary considerably, but each has his excellences. Their purposes were avowedly moral; they taught men to know themselves and their proper “spheres” and appropriate manners.
