It's a great frustration to me that circumstances rarely permit me to read at length. I read a good deal, but it's in five- or ten-minute snippets. As part of my ongoing effort to visit the classics I missed several decades ago, I started Tom Jones a few weeks ago, when I had several days off and could manage an hour or two a day of reading. I would have been through it before now if I'd kept on at the pace I was making then. Now I'm down to reading one or two chapters at bed-time, so it's going to be a month or more before I finish. And I don't want to wait that long to say what a wonderful book it is.
Stylistically, it's pure delight. And it must be a high point of the 18th century, the very acme of a certain genial, magnanimous, common-sensical English spirit. It may prove to be one of those rare books that are worth re-reading at regular intervals. Maybe one day I'll have time to do that.
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