ABSTRACT
David Simplelaunched Fielding's career, but brought her neither fame nor fortune. Still, the success of the novel provided an opportunity to generate much-needed money by writing a sequel, which Fielding did with Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters of David Simple. Michie, the only scholar to consider Familiar Letters a true sequel to David Simple, provides the most enthusiastic defense of Fielding's venture into epistolarity. Michie, the only scholar to consider Familiar Letters a true sequel to David Simple, provides the most enthusiastic defense of Fielding's venture into epistolarity. Even as Henry praises Familiar Letters by calling attention to its verisimilitude and comparing it to the works of Cervantes and Hogarth, he claims the artistic high ground for himself. Equally problematic, Henry defines Familiar Letters as a work designed to make women more attractive to men. Fielding reminds her reader of the importance of this kind of conversation through the structure of Familiar Letters.
