Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses references to rape and incest, which feature in the novel.

The author dedicates the work to George Lyttleton, Esq., whom he says provided a model for Allworthy. He attributes Lyttleton’s wish not to be acknowledged to modesty and perhaps a wish not to be satirized. Fielding insists that his work shows “nothing inconsistent with the strictest Rules of Decency” (7), and he claims, “To recommend Goodness and Innocence hath been my sincere Endeavour” (7). He resolves to portray the truth in order to persuade men to pursue virtue but has also employed wit and humor “to laugh Mankind out of their favourite Follies and Vices” (8).

Fielding resolves to render human nature in all its “prodigious Variety” (26) and dress his ordinary, even vulgar subject with as much skill as he can.

In Somersetshire lives a gentleman named Allworthy, who combines the blessings of Nature and Fortune: “an agreeable Person, a sound Constitution, a solid Understanding, and a benevolent Heart” (27). Because his wife and children died young, he now lives with an unmarried sister, Miss Bridget Allworthy. Miss Allworthy, who is considered an old maid, deplores her lack of beauty but demonstrates extreme prudence—a guard often exhibited, the author observes, where there is the least chance of a man to tempt her.