Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last

The Adventures of David Simple (1744), Sarah Fielding's first and most celebrated novel, went through several editions, the second of which was heavily revised by her brother Henry. This edition includes Henry's "corrections" in an appendix. In recounting the guileless hero's search for a true friend, the novel depicts the derision with which almost everyone treats his sentimental attitudes to human nature. Acclaimed as an accurate portrait of mid-eighteenth-century London, The Adventures of David Simple sets forth some provocative feminist ideas. Also included is Fielding's much darker sequel, Volume the Last (1753).

" David Simple is the most-read work of Sarah Fielding, best known as the sister of novelist Henry Fielding. This attractive new edition by Sabor is the fourth in Kentucky's series of 18th-century women's novels." -- Choice, "A welcome addition to eighteenth-century studies.... Readers of eighteenth-century fiction will be delighted that Sarah Fielding's edition has been restored in a volume that is accessible, responsibly edited, and handsomely produced." -- Eighteenth-Century Fiction, "Sabor restores the novel Sarah Fielding really wrote." -- East-Central Intelligencer, "Sabor's introduction lays out the family tragedies and financial difficulties that perplexed Fielding's career and provides a detailed revisionist account of her impressive literary accomplishments." -- Publishers Weekly, "The revival of interest in Sarah Fielding's writings over the last decade should be quickened by the publication of this important edition." -- Letters in Canada

Sarah Fielding (1710-1768) was an English author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She wrote The Governess, or Little Female Academy (1749), the first novel in English aimed specifically at children. Earlier she had success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple (1744).