Tom Jones Book 10, Chapter 1

Containing Instructions Very Necessary To Be Perused By Modern Critics

• The narrator does not want any critics to misrepresent him.
• He addresses his critics as "little reptile."
• (We're imagining something like this.)
• So, let's say you're a "little reptile" critic.
• Here's what the narrator says you're not allowed to do:
• (1) Don't assume that anything that happens in the novel is pointless just because you don't see the point.
• (2) Don't complain because some characters closely resemble each other.
• Sometimes two people doing the same job in two different places (like the landladies in Books 7 and 9) will have traits in common.
• That doesn't mean they are the same.
• (3) Don't assume that any character is bad just because he isn't perfectly good.
• After all, there are no perfect people in the world.
• In fact, it's morally better to notice the flaws in characters we otherwise like than to be really black-and-white about Good vs. Evil.
• With these warnings out of the way, we can get on with the story.