Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Tom Jones includes a lot of criticism of unfair and biased judges in the British legal system. Well, it turns out that Henry Fielding really knew what he was talking about: starting in 1748, he served as a Justice of the Peace for Westminster and Middlesex (in London). Way to multitask, Fielding! [Source: "Introduction," Tom Jones (Barnes and Noble Classics), edited by Ross Hamilton, New York: Barnes & Noble Classics with Fine Creative Media, 2004. pg. xi]
Henry Fielding was the real-life cousin of all around awesomesauce woman adventurer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. After Lady Mary Montagu's death, her Turkish Embassy Letters came out in print. They were a big bestseller, and strongly influenced English ideas about Turkey and its culture. [Source: Introduction," Tom Jones (Barnes and Noble Classics), edited by Ross Hamilton, New York: Barnes & Noble Classics with Fine Creative Media, 2004. pg. xvi]
Fielding tried to practice what he preached: In 1747, when his late wife's maid Mary Daniel became pregnant with Fielding's child, he did not leave her to have the kid on her own. He married her, which shocked a lot of his contemporaries but saved Mary Daniel from social outcast status. (Source.)