1. He is regarded as one of the four wheels of novels in the eighteenth century.
2. His famous works are:
(i) Roderick Random (1748)
(ii) Peregrine Pickle (1751)
(iii) Humphrey Clinker (1771)
3. As Long points out, "Without any particular ability, he models his novels on Don Quixote and the result is simply a series of coarse adventures which are characteristic of the picaresque novel of his age."
4. His merits: His main (and probably the only) merit was that of exaggeration of the characteristics of a character which finally came so handy to Dickens in his caricatures.
5. Demerits
(a) He lacked:
(i) natural sympathy with his characters
(ii) Fielding's sense of humor
(iii) proper ability to be a novelist in the true sense.
(b) his works are replete with brutal and horrendous descriptions which cannot be accepted in the name
of realism.
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