Tom Jones Book 2, Chapter 1

Showing What Kind of History This Is; What It Is Like, and What It Is Not Like

• The narrator may call this novel a "history" (2.1.1) of Tom Jones.
• But he promises that it's not one of those boring histories that try to set down Every. Single. Detail. of their subject's lives.
• If nothing happens for months or even years, he's just going to skim over those sections of story (which is lucky for us, since this book is nine hundred pages long as it is!).
• The narrator is just here to report the characters' actions.
• So the narrator has no control over how long or complex this book is going to be—it's up to the characters to work those issues out. (Yeah. Right.)