ABSTRACT
Both Familiar Letters and The Governess show Fielding's continuing interest in reading and understanding texts. In each of these works, Fielding halts the forward action of traditional novel while her narrators and characters interpret the stories they have read or shared with each other. It is not surprising, then, that in the months following The Governess, Fielding published two short works of literary criticism. Although the works of criticism are not overtly political—they do not, for example, address the issues of legitimate authority found in The Governess—they illustrate Fielding's understandings of critical reading and its relationship to empowerment, particularly for women. Sarah, for example, echoes Henry's review from January 2, 1748, of Clarissa in the Jacobite's Journal, when she castigates readers who offer contradictory criticisms of Richardson's heroine. In large part, Fielding explicates Clarissa's death within the Protestant tradition ars moriendi, in which a peaceful death becomes a sign of a reconciled soul and a promise of eternal redemption.
